'Dangerous, radicalised, too lazy to work and annoying.'

'Young people never respect their parents, they are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit bars and have no self-respect.'

These are just some of the things I have heard people say about today's youth.

Believe it or not, not every single teenager around my age (11-18) goes around beating up people and smashing up cars. Can you seriously claim that today's youth are that much worse than the teenagers of the former generation?

Statistics show that now adults and elders are more scared of teenagers than ever before. It has also been claimed that more than 1.5 million Britons had considered moving home because of young people 'hanging around' their neighbourhood.

Reading the great British press, one might be forgiven for thinking that all our teenagers are binge-drinking, drug-addled, knife-wielding thugs ready to leap out and stab a granny for a fiver.

But the fact is, more teenagers than ever before are staying on at school after the age of 16 to study, and again, more than ever are going on to further and higher education. Teenagers are more likely to do voluntary work than people from any other generation. In fact, they are 10 times more likely to be volunteering in our communities than regularly being antisocial in them and nearly two thirds of 10 – 15-year olds have helped raise money for charity.

In November 2017 lots of people campaigned for 'votes at 16.' These people believed that if a young person could join the army, get married, get a job, join a trade union, register as a blood donor and so much more, why are over 1.5 million 16 and 17-year-olds denied the vote?

The Young People's EDP Takeover is in association with The Inspiration Trust.