Teenage boys are missing out on real life adventures according to our survey of 1,000 13-18-year-olds for the National Citizen Service.
In fact, 22% of boys and 18% of girls believe they had never had a real life adventure. One-third of boys claimed that most of the adventures they had were through gaming and virtual experiences, with 1 in 5 saying their most memorable experiences had been during a video game. A quarter believed that an online adventure was just as satisfying as real life.
50% said they were scared of trying new things, with only 52% of boys and 40% of girls considering themselves as ‘brave’. 11% said they would be more willing to try new things if they had watched a video of it or tried it virtually beforehand.
Adults, it seemed, were also dubious about letting teens have real life experiences. 41% of the 2,000 adults polled said they would not let a teenager hitchhike; 25% would forbid a teen from going away without an adult and 10% wouldn’t even let them get a taxi on their own. It is, therefore, no surprise that two-thirds of adults consider teenagers to be more protected than they were, with most agreeing that the ages of 15-20 were the most adventurous of their lives.
The adults surveyed listed going away with their friends for the first time (without their parents) as one of the teen adventures that changed their lives. This was in stark contrast to today’s teens, who, when asked what their most memorable experiences from the last 12 months listed playing a new video game (27%), watching a new series on Netflix (12%) and even discovering the new Faceswap app (8%).
The National Citizen Service run workshops for young people and help them take part in character-building activities during the school holidays. The findings of the survey achieved widespread media coverage including The Telegraph, the MailOnline, The Independent and a range of regional news sites such as The Yorkshire Post The survey was also featured in the Daily Mail on the 15th June.
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