Young people's enthusiasm for new electronic media, where the pace of change outstrips current understandings of effects on health and development, has done little to diminish this sense of uneasiness. Suicide, mental disorder and failure were commonplace in portrayals of an insecure and pessimistic young generation. Psychiatrists were predatory or incompetent and offered no reprieve for the distressed. It is true that with these social changes familiar adult milestones such as stable employment, financial independence, parenthood and home ownership are delayed 3 and rates of adolescent emotional and behavioural problems appear high. Even so, images of pervasive adversity, mental disorder and suicide are overly pessimistic and do little to destigmatise mental disorder in a group whose access to health services is already poor.
Hard answers are elusive.
Academic research on the media and youth lags far behind that of marketing. Most work is North American, where the main focus has been on television violence. It is clear that childhood viewing of violence predicts later aggression and criminal behaviour. It is also clear that there are many powerful moderating influences. Parents, for example, have traditionally influenced not only what children watch but also the effect of those images on actual behaviour.