Skip to main content
Contact us Donate now

Representation of young people in the media

Persistently negative stories in the mainstream and social media about young people stereotype everyone’s children. They stigmatise young people, and often position them as outsiders in their own communities. They impact people’s willingness to support and engage with young people, particularly those with a life history of doing it tough. We need to restore balance and fairness in reporting about young people.

Protecting young people, protecting the community

Young people have been described in the media as a ‘burgeoning criminal generation’ who are ‘running wild’ and ‘fuelling Queensland’s youth violence explosion’. Words such as ‘epidemic’, ‘scourge’ and ‘plague’, metaphors for disease, are commonly used. Unsurprisingly, we then hear this exclusionary language being echoed in political circles and in the community.

The experience of being an outsider, particularly for a teenager, is deeply harmful. Research shows that young people can respond with substance use/abuse; risky behaviours; mental health concerns, such as depression; and disengagement from school. They search out a peer group where they can feel they belong.

Positive community ties and support are key protective factors for young people, particularly those at risk of involvement in the justice system. Recognising the damage done by constant negativity toward young people, and refusing to engage with it, protects the community as well.

In May 2024, Anglicare Southern Queensland made a submission to the Community Safety and Legal Affairs Committee regarding the Queensland Community Safety Bill 2024. You can read our full submission below:

Media depicts us as ‘malicious’, ‘evil’ and label us negatively.
They drag it out, turn it into a story and think that’s
all the young people will ever be.

— Young person from our Intensive Bail Initiative (IBI) program

Media guidelines for reporting on young people and alleged youth offending

To help address some of the issues above, we developed a set of media guidelines for reporting on young people and alleged youth offending. The guidelines were shaped by conversations with the young people in Anglicare’s youth justice programs, Anglicare staff, University of Queensland criminology researcher Associate Professor Renee Zahnow, and Barbara Haines from BBS Communications Group.

The way they talk about us young people makes us seem like bad people. We’re not bad people…

— Young person from our Intensive Bail Initiative (IBI) program

The full story

Some of the recent ‘shock data’ reporting about an apparent surge of youth crime in Queensland tells only part of the story.

  • There has been a 5.2% increase in unique child offenders in the past year, compared to a 4.1% increase in unique adult offenders — a mere 1.1% difference.
  • Both adult and child rates of offending were much lower in 2022–23 than a decade previously, and the number of young offenders, relative to the population, has fallen 26.7% over nine years.
  • The most violent Queenslanders are those aged 30–39, who committed nearly a quarter of all assaults. In 2022–23, more than half the offences among children aged 10–14 years were trespassing and vagrancy offences.

Source: (Queensland Government Statistician’s Office 2022-23)

I hate when the media talks about young people being hopeless and helpless. I saw them on the news calling young people hopeless and it made me so angry. We are trying.

— Young person from our Intensive Bail Initiative (IBI) program

Back to top