Teens need their own gathering places

To many parents, Centre Point in Siam Square is not an ideal place where they'd like their offspring to hang out. The more they've heard about the kind of freedom the youngsters enjoy there, the less they tend to give their approval.

It's true that any place where teens gather may open an opportunity for drugs, alcohol and premature sex. But we all have to face it: whether there is a place like Centre Point or not, we have these social problems.

It is the right way, though, of going about ridding society of its vices to curb the growth of gathering places for young people?

Should we jump to the conclusion that a girl wearing her favourite spaghetti-strap top is looking for casual sex?

Clearly grownups use their own yardsticks to judge the behaviour of their offspring, forgetting what they themselves were like when in their teens. In the 1960s, Thai teens used to hang around the back of Sala Chalermkrung Theatre. They too were in the fashionable outfits of their time. And as we've seen in many films: boys wore bell bottoms, girls hoop skirts.

In more recent memory, young executives now may recall the fun days when they went dancing at The Palace discotheque, hung around at Siam Centre or drank at the Kloster Beer Garden.

So what is really different in the lifestyles of young people of these two or three generations? Everyone at that age loves freedom and likes to find a place where they can express it.

They value friendships - a vital part of their lives. And they love to have fun. No doubt this is why the Centre Point of Siam Square has been so successful over the past five years. Pornpailin Development created the place specifically to respond to young people's needs.

Perhaps it's true that Centre Point is receptive ground for social vices, and the accusations of prostitution in the area may not be groundless. But there are two different issues here. If society or the government wants to put and end to prostitution, the primary target is certainly not Centre Point.

Youngsters may express their love by hugging and kissing in public. Yet such affection is a different issue from sex and prostitution.

Society may be able to persuade youngsters to behave properly by adopting a constructive approach, but to condemn them for expressing innocent feelings is not fair.

Broken hearts have produced a significant rise in violence among teens, perhaps because they are more fragile than former generations.

Perhaps they have been under stress from the cradle while parents were out busy working. Or were they unduly pressured to achieve academic excellence to earn their parents' admiration? No one can tell.

Yet in most of cases where violence has erupted, the teenagers involved did not appear to have been problem children for their parents. They studied hard and behaved themselves. There were no records of crime or drug use. Most had one thing in common: they followed the lead of their parents and society.

Society is now looking for ways to curb teen violence by raising teens' morale, so why don't we simply allow them to search for their own identities by giving them space to express their freedom openly and with the consent of adults?

Open public places like Centre Point may not be a parent's dream. However, it is a practical and safe choice. Whether we like it or not, its chief benefit is that the venue is accessible.

If we have fewer and fewer public spheres which youngsters consider their own, we will lose touch with them. They will retreat to places parents have no inkling of. In that case, the damage will have been done even before we know that these places exist.

So while we are building a civil society, please let us not exclude young people. They too want their own space. They too want to enjoy their civil liberties.

Let them love life under our guidance. Let them have their open place to go wild with their own mode of dress.

Whatever we do, let us open our minds and be fair. After all, what they are doing now is what we went through when we were young.

And they may seek out other places than Centre Point.

Published on Jul 19, 2003