YouthNet blog

Thursday Sep 07, 2006

Boys too hard to reach - so let's give up

It must be bloody hard being a young man growing up in 2006.

For these boys' fathers, life was much more clear-cut and focused: finish school, go to university or straight into a job, get married, have children, work some more, retire, die. But not anymore. The world is changing rapidly. There are a million options in life, choice is seen as paramount, and although this flexibility brings benefits, it also brings anxiety and enormous pressure to succeed.

The media meanwhile, tells them that they're thugs or hoodies, they're lazy, and deserve to be locked up or sent to boot-camp.  It tells them that girls are the ones succeeding – in exams and careers - and they'd better watch out else they'll be left behind.

Unlike girls, boys also usually deal with their issues alone. They don't generally talk to each other about their problems - or their parents, or anyone really. All this when they're going through the biggest physical and mental transitions of all: from child to adult. Is it then a surprise that depression, self harm and suicide amongst young men is on the rise?

Thankfully, there are plenty of services out there to help young men through this transition, right?

Well, not really.

Young, male and hard to reach

Let's look at this on a wider level first.

The teenage boy - as all media experts agree – is a difficult nut to crack. As magazines, websites and books aimed at young women propagate widely (and sometimes successfully), very few companies have managed to create propositions that work for boys aged 12-18.

Teen lifestyle magazines aimed at boys have never taken off – we're told they'll read about wrestling or football or music, but won't buy a magazine focused and marketed directly to boys. OK, so soft porn mags Zoo and Nuts have made some success of it recently but only by focusing on lowest common denominator stuff: tits and footballers. It's superficial and slightly depressing and doesn't offer young men much in the way of creative thought or useful experience.

Something useful

So what about the narrower world of advice provision? Plenty of people have tried to support young men, but often the reaction is that no matter what you say, they don't listen. They are, apparently, just too hard to reach.

In this sphere of IAG (information, advice and guidance provision – don't blame me, I didn't make it up), getting messages across to young men about safe sex, health issues, drugs awareness or relationships sometimes feels like banging your head against a wall: say whatever you like, but you just won't get through to young men. Often, they don't seek advice because it's not cool, or think it will make them look weak or pathetic.

But just because it's hard reaching young men, does it mean you should give up? As mentioned above, no other group of people is so desperately in need of support as teenage boys.

Not on the beeb

So it was a bit of a surprise to see that the BBC has removed its online advice site for boys. They have beefed up and re-branded the girls site, now called Slink, but given up providing any information for the boys.

I asked Sarah Dain, Senior Producer on Slink, to explain the decision – and it basically came down to resourcing. "We've got four staff and a small budget and the figures for the boys' site were low. We decided to focus on girls".

Sarah said that investing all their energy in the girls' site provided better value for money and that they were exploring ways to ensure the boys' needs were met elsewhere. Fair enough, and in time the BBC might be spending more in this area (the recent Creative Futures strategy document includes providing "a new teen brand" – not sure whether this will be just glossy entertainment or also include useful advice though).

But it still feels like the BBC is shirking their responsibilities to a group which needs help the most. YouthNet thinks you can reach young men; you just need to be a bit more creative about it. Interactive tools; games; content syndication and partnership agreements; "stealth advice provision"... it's not easy but it can work.

Another part of the new BBC strategy focuses on the corporation partnering more with other companies and agencies. This is a cultural shift for an organisation so used to doing everything itself but YouthNet, for one, would be more than happy to supply content to the BBC if it means more young people are supported. (In fact, we have already supplied a few pieces to Slink but it's a small drop in the ocean.)

It would be good to hear your views on reaching young men and boys and how successful you've been – or otherwise. Post your comments below. Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 10:34 AM ) Link to this post Comments[2]

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