In reply to The Lemming: Wow! There's a lot of naive oldens on this forum isn't there! Drug-taking, 'homophobic', 'racism', 'bullying' is common behaviour for a 16/17 year old in the United Kingdom in this day and age.
A lot of the remarks that you oldies believe are racist/homophobic have changed meanings over the past 10/15 years. Especially since the internet has warped our poor little minds given us a million opinions on every subject under the sun and out in to the universe for that matter.
Firstly, drug-taking is commonplace in most schools, even ones your children are at, they'll be someone dealing drugs in your son/daughter/niece/nephews year. This sounds pessimistic but I assure you it is quite the norm!
Secondly, children have been raised with music, films, magazines, glorifying sex. You would be stupid if you thought your son or daughter aren't send 'sexy' pictures/texts to their classmates! It happens!
Thirdly, bullying happens, what do you expect when everyone can easily say something about somebody completely anonymously. Not everyone likes you, or me, or anyone else. No-one is liked by everyone. Bullying isn't a new thing, but there are now ways to get away with it much more easily. See websites like ask.fm, formspring.me...
Have you ever got on a bus and thought 'Oh that person next to me smells f**king awful!'. Well now children/teenagers can post that view straight away on sites like Twitter/Facebook, again anonymously.
To believe you can pull the blinkers over your children's eyes is false hope, and more likely to backfire.
I'm sorry if this post comes across as a bit vague or incoherent but it makes my blood boil how out-of-touch a lot of the older generations in the UK are with the young.
Yours sincerely a 21 year old lad!