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Adults think children 'are feral and a danger to society'

More than half of all adults think British children are beginning to behave like animals, a poll has found

Public intolerance of young people has reached such levels that more than half of all adults think that British children are beginning to behave like animals, a poll has found.

The poll, commissioned by the children’s charity Barnardo’s, found that 49 per cent of adults regard children as increasingly dangerous both to each other and to their elders, while 43 per cent feel that “something has to be done” to protect society from children and young people.

More than a third of people agree that “it feels like the streets are infested with children”.

The picture to emerge from the poll is of an adult population exasperated by what they perceive to be a breakdown in social order among the young. For children and young people, the upshot is a world in which they are made to feel unwelcome in public spaces and where adults have become fearful of them on the streets.

Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo’s and former director-general of the Prison Service, said the attitudes revealed by the study reflected the results of the British Crime Survey, which showed that people blame children for “up to half of all crime” when in fact they are responsible for 12 per cent of criminal activity.

More than half of the survey respondents (53 per cent) said that children were beginning to behave like animals and 45 per cent agreed that people refer to children as feral “because they behave this way”.

Read the full story in The Times