Children as young as nine or 10 are being introduced to drink or drugs earlier as they increasingly hang around with over 18s on their estates, a Kingston youth charity has warned.
Richard James, director of Oxygen, has noticed a big rise in “cross-generational groups” in recent months, mainly centred around the borough’s council estates.
He said the older influence means younger children can reject activities aimed at their own age and are more likely to experiment with alcohol and illegal drugs.
Mr James said: “It used to be that 15-year-olds would hang around with 15-year-olds, 16s with 16-year-olds and so on.
“But now there’s a bigger cross generational thing, where you get nine or 10-year-olds hanging around with 16, 17, even 20-year-olds.
“The challenge is that the over 18s are allowed to drink. The nine and 10 year olds, that’s all they see and they respect them.
“If we do activities which are age specific, the older ones don’t come because it’s not for them. They say ‘this is rubbish’ and then the younger ones say ‘this is rubbish’.
"It means that we need to engage with them straight away and do things that they can’t help but want to be involved in.”
He believes the wide age range groups could have started when parents entrusted older siblings to look after brothers and sisters.
He reiterated that these were not gangs but groups doing things together.
Oxygen, which was set up by local churches in 2001, is running activities over the summer holidays, including youth clubs and art, drama and music projects, to distract bored children from antisocial behaviour.
Recent unsettled weather has meant there have been fewer problems at the start of the summer holidays this year, Mr James said.
Adam Lotun, neighbourhood watch co-ordinator on the Knollmead estate, Tolworth, agreed with Oxygen’s findings.
He said: “I’ve seen 11 and 12-year-olds drinking anything they can get their hands on. It’s happening on everyone’s door steps. It needs to be tackled now. Parents need to know what their children are doing.”
Last month, the Surrey Comet reported how children as young as 10 and 12 have been arrested for criminal damage, being drunk and disorderly and possessing drugs in Kingston over the past three years.
For more details about Oxygen’s summer holiday activities visit oxygen-online.org.
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