Adults have no right using those words to bully teenagers, are you surprised we do such thungs when adults are using such vulgar language at us! I'm 15 and know teens who go out on streets because they are bullied by their parents they tell me themselves, if teens are vermin so are adults.

Heather, Marlborough, UK

What a waste of money! In a world where children are still suffering, such as the case of Baby P, why on earth is Barnados spending money on this?

Children are worshipped, not demonised by this society - and we have badly behaved children as a result as they have never been properly disciplined

Ann, London ,

I have visited many parts of the world, but I have rarely seen a country more hostile to children and adolescents than Britain. This article and the comments only serve to reinforce that impression. What makes this particularly sad is that most British children I encountered were likable.

Cora, Bremen, Germany

The world is for adults. Children are transient. Priorities correct please, not this sick child centric nonsense. The evidence is that it IS all ending in tears.

Simon, Southampton , UK

Although I agree that more Children today are unruly and aggressive I do not agree that we liken them to animals.

Animals have good instincts and don't cause trouble for trouble's sake.

Yesteryear ~ children in institutions were 'loved' more as some of these institutions were run by Charities.

Anne Kent, Dorset,

I have been a teacher for 38 years, and I would say the major change is in parenting. The role of fathers has changed -- and in some circles has disappeared! Without strong marriages and strong extended families -- grandparents etc.-- children lack some of the strength they need to be happy.

Joseph, London, UK

When parents and teachers risk arrest for trying to discipline out of control children it's no surprise children remain out of control. Violence by teachers against children has gone down by about 100%, and violence by children against each other has gone up by around 1,000%.

Joe, London, UK

People referring to a large group of the population as "feral" is something like discrimination. They're children! Children learn from their parents, and I'm sure most parents in the UK are not criminals. A very small amount of children actually commit crimes, the rest would be terrified to.

Amy, Melbourne, Australia

When we lived in Ealing during 1980 I was staggered at the foul-mouthed kids around us and consequently refused to send our daughter to the local school: so it can't be Thatcher's fault. 2 years ago I was almost mugged in broad daylight on the embankment in front of Somerset House by 3 youths.

a Stewart, Wellington, New Zealand

Most here make the very error the survey intended to highlight – how few respond with concern that children are demonised. Instead the assumption is that children really ARE demons, who must be curbed and controlled. This attitude is why kids feel estranged. It's not just parents: it's all of us.

G Davies, Somerset,

Children are our future, we need to nuture and discapline, both go hand in hand together.Tough love and routine give stability.

John, Leeds,

bit like dogs, its bad owners that make bad dogs. Parenting has to be held accountable. Not easy in our grubby little country where the state is busy paving a road to hell with its good intentions. The cost of living demands parents absence to what end?

thomas, aberdeen,

There is one obvious solution to the problem of dangerous and worthless children: STOP BREEDING. Let's hope for a childfree society.

John, Tucson, USA

So long as:

1 No discipline in schools

2 Kids seen as "little adults" & not immature kids

3 Rights of good parents to discipline removed

4 Feckless behaviour from kids & bad parents at best ignored & at worse rewarded

it only gets worse

Needs saying children aren't adults equals

Guy, London, UK

Since I was 14 i have volunteered with various charities, i have always had good grades, and have always been described as a caring considerate person. Yet untill recently i was regarded with suspicion and fear, followed by security guards. Now im 20 that doesn't happen anymore. wonder why?

Anna Heath, bury, england

Kids only copy what they see. Enough said. Time to reintroduce discipline into schools and also in the home. What happened to good old-fashioned 'christian' values and morals ? Oh yes, they were drowned out by 'human rights' clauses.

Alison , Leeds, West Yorkshire

There is actually nothing more inimical to children than "putting their interests at the heart of all policy". It's the grown-ups who need help but they're not likely to get it from this infantilising administration. The kids? They need and want certainty and to be able to respect their elders.

John, London, SE,

Blame parents, they have failed to instill discipline into their children and have turned them loose on the streets. Stop giving children more rights and try to reign back in the useless, foul mouthed yobs that give all children a bad name. They're not all bad, but they all need boundaries!

Helen, Tyneside,

Parents should have the ability to discipline their child to the extent they see fit.

This would help.

Stephen Gillanders, Derby , UK

it s sad and shame that such a high percentage of adults has this kind of perceptions for the majority of young people.
They are responsible for the upbringing and social development of these kids, which means that they should question themselves what THEY did wrong.

Periklis, London,

Society does not need to be protected from children and young people. Children and young people need to be protected from society. Its this right-wing "see and not heard" attitude that causes young people to behave badly and rebel in the first place.

Kieran, Haywards Heath, West Sussex

I am a teenager, and I've enjoyed reading these comments, it's swell to see what's thought of us. Some comments just leap from the pages of totalitarianism. The Hitler Youth didn't question the authority of their elders perhaps you'd like us to become brainless drones, who obey every word like them.

Oliver, Chesterfield, England

I lived in south Africa for 24 years before moving to the UK. I have traveled extensively and the UK is the only place I've where I feel threatened by teenagers.

Justin, London, UK

When the public says "half" of all crime is committed by young people, and research says only 12%, I must ask what age cutoff each group is using.

Without that information, the whole comparison is completely meaningless.

I bet researchers use 18 and the public thinks early twenties.

Chuck Harley, San Diego, USA

Pete form York is right on the money. My selfish and unpleasant generation first abused their parents' ideals, parents who fought a depression and a world war, and now their children. If the wartime generation was the best this country produced the generation it spawned has been the worst.

Eddie Reader, birmingham, england

Here in the USA, we repel the obnoxious by playing soft, classical music. No one has to shoo anyone away, and normal people are completely unaffected.

Oftentimes, the obnoxious don't even realize consciously why a formerly comfortable hangout spot repulses them so.

P. Iano, Milwaukee, USA

I'm 22 and work in a school. Most of the problems I see come from,
Bad parenting
The government giving away houses and money to anyone with a child (many people have kids just to get a free house).
No laws to punish bad behaviour. Most kids see prison as a place to sit and watch tv all day!

Miriam, Cornwall,

"I'd go further. The greatest threat to our society, is the children. If they're our future, god help us." One of the many shocking statements made here and i am disgusted at everybody being so generalistic. Why does everyone assume that if you have kids, you are in a council house on benefits?

Nicola, Lincoln,

Pete,York

Thatcherism? No, it's 11 years of the rights culture under NuLabour (& the kids charities). Endless rights for kids, stopping discipline from parents and teachers & yet little or no mention of responsibility

Btw global warming is a reality, head in sand time maybe?

Guy, London, UK

There's no hope. Despite the article showing evidence that adults overestimate the trouble children cause, most of these comments are anti-children - shameful. Maybe you live in broken communities like the poxy capital, but lots of us live in normal rural UK where the kids are fine.

John H Woods, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK

Most of the children I see are on the tube or busse getting to school. There are damaged children but that's not new. I suspect the current adult inmates population (record high)had not so quiet childhoods. People just take any opportunity to have negative opinions, based on nothing but headlines

Olivier, London, UK

Unfortunately a large minority of young people spurred on by drugs and alcohol behave outrageously. To say that those young people behave like animals is an insult to animals.

JS Sierzant, Nelson, England

Its not the kids , its those that have them that still behave like as kids.I was in a shop the other day and a kid was pullling down the window display , twice , father did nothing but continue to look at video games.
Ban having kids until your 5 years together.Solve two things at once.

C robb, ayr, uk

I am fortunate to have grown up in a culture of dissipline enforced by corporal punishment. I detest liberal idiots who argue that cp teaches children that violence fix problems. It teaches children that bad deeds have conscequences. Take it away, and children become spoiled brats.

hannodb, Pretoria, South Africa

Stop paying children to have children, its better to get knocked up at school and get a house and bennefits than to study, get a poorly paid job and not afford a house!
With mass immigration and mass exit of jobs its madnes that we still pay people to have kids both in allowances and in divorce

ana, harwich, english

I echo Graham of Swansea and Martin of Poole's sentiments. I would stand up for teenagers, knowing that they have nothing to do at nights, but after the last 20 years of degenerating parenting skills and kids raising themselves in a me-and-only-me culture, I have given up on today's young people.

Alfie Hynes, Plymouth, England

I'd beg everyone on here (from the point of view of a twenty-year-old, a young adult who's usually still grouped by older generations as a child) to consider that it really is a minority of the young who get the press.

Jen, Cambridge,

I'm sorry to say that I myself, who used to love children, want nothing to do with them anymore, unless they are polite and well brought up,

Children are now used as 'bargening' power

Graham, Swansea, UK

Unfortumately, the total lack of discipline inclines us older folk to that view. After all we probably got a thick ear or a slap and have survived reasonably well. But ne'er do wells and do gooders have much to be blamed for. Knifings every where and people are surprised at the outcome.

M. Cawdery, Portadown,

With previous generations, parents were taught the skills of parenting by the Grand Parents; now pregnancy is seen as a fast-track to a home and benefits; when they then find that parenting is far more difficult than thought, they give-up...

Martin, Poole, UK

There is no discipline at home or in the schools anymore. Bring back the cane and allow parents to smack their off spring for their bad behaviour. There is a huge difference between a smack and abusive behaviour. Society in general took a nose dive when the constraints were removed.

Chris, s'bury,

Any child under the age of 10 who is not accompanied by an adult over 21 should be rounded up & detained until parent/gaurdian pays a fine to release them. Maybe this will start to reinforce responsibility on parents/gaurdians! As for teenagers, well, boot camps until they learn respect!

Pete, St Albans, England

I would like to see the survey itself. It sounds like the terms "feral", "vermin", and "infested" originated in the questionnaire drawn up by Barnado's and YouGov. Agreeing to statements which use such words, while disturbing, is very different from individually volunteering such statements.

Thomas Mansell, London, UK

Again, all the blame is 100% on the previous two governments. Remove respect and discipline from the home and school and you bring in Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' scenario. I wonder why that book was compulsory on the education syllabus at school? Socialism destroys society and creates anarchy .

Marcus, London, England

I would suggest that if you wanted to improve the image of children in society you should first limit the appalling treatment they receive at the hands of the media. No other group, I suspect, is as vilified and damned by the media as adolescent children.

Rohan Davies, Brisbane, Australia

I blame Thatcher. If she hadn't stolen our free milk at school, kicked our parents out of jobs to prove a political point & antagonised our teachers to the point where they gave up school clubs\trips etc then maybe we'd have more parents today who *cared*. No thing as society though,remember!

mark, brussels (expat), belgium

Of course one uses such language about children - but then descriptions such as "feral" apply just as much to a number of adults too (just see any town centre on Friday and Saturday nights, when the streets are more or less abandoned to them).

John Scott, London,

If the world wasn't filled with bad parents the children would know to behave. I know who to blame and they're the same people who have pulled the strings for the last 40 years. Credit crunch, thatcherism - no such thing as society, global warming?

The baby boomers destroyed britain not the kids.

pete, york, uk

Children need less rights and more discipline, it may only be a few 'feral' children who give the rest a bad name but unless these few are tamed and the unquestioned authority of adults is once again reinstated within society, matters will only get worse. Stop abuse but don't undermine discipline.

Les, Southport, England

The shadow of pedophilia has left adults imbued with a sense of shame. Without their influence, damaged kids are wielding too much control over the other kids.

Our fault or not, these sociopaths exist; they need to be cut off from the rest of the pack and have their development issues addressed.

Ed, Cardiff,

I'd go further. The greatest threat to our society, is the children. If they're our future, god help us.

Laura Roberts, London, UK