The much anticipated series 4 of the hit TV show Skins kicked off on E4 on Thursday 28th January, entertaining an audience of 1.1million viewers – a large proportion of those aged between 11 and 18. Beginning with a death linked to a girl taking illegal drugs, we were immediately thrown into a classic, dramatic and shocking episode of the teenage favourite. The show has always been outrageous, one of a kind, focussing on major issues including drug and alcohol abuse, sex and violence – each of which can be seen almost without fail in each instalment.

The show highlights many problems that teenagers face but in some cases doesn’t always show the damaging and dangerous effects they have. Obviously, the series would not have gained so many fans if it was constantly teaching lessons on how not to behave but by showing a group of friends living a life of getting drunk every night, taking drugs and simply doing as they please it might not be sending the best message. However, you could argue that maybe it’s simply a realistic image of how some groups of people live their lives?

Even so, surely at least a few times the characters should be shown paying a penalty for their illegal and disruptive behaviour? Or maybe they think the fact that one girl (not even a main character) died because of the drugs she took is enough so show the consequences of their actions, and now they can continue in the same way...

I’m not writing this intending to criticise the series and stop people enjoying it because I know it’s great and the explosive episodes rarely disappoint, I just think that a large part of the audience is young and impressionable and could easily react to what they see irresponsibly, hoping for the same exciting lives. But all this is only based on one episode – the rest is still to come, and who knows, it might show us a completely new side to the show.