“Peer pressure”* is very strong, especially among young people. Almost everyone can remember a moment when they did something because their friends were doing it. Teenagers often buy something just because their friends have it, and this thing comes into fashion. If teenagers didn’t imitate their friends’ behavior, there would be fewer social problems: smoking, crime and so on.

On the other hand, “peer pressure” can also produce positive results. Youth crime and vandalism in one of the districts of Bristol, a city in England, fell by 20% last year. Why? Because young people stopped doing stupid and anti-social things. Now they are trying to keep out of trouble. And it's all the result of a new project.

Two Bristol policemen organised a football league for teenagers in one of the poorest parts of the city. The idea is to prevent teenagers from committing crimes. They want to show teenagers how they can spend their free time in a better way.

The policemen introduced a system in which football results are connected to young people's behaviour outside the football grounds. Teams get points for winning their matches, but lose points if any team-member does anything he shouldn't on the football field or off it! For example, teams get ten points for winning a match, but if any player is arrested, the team loses ten points. If a member is caught doing an act of vandalism, such as spraying graffiti, the team loses five points. Three points are lost for less serious crimes.

The results in Bristol are great. None of the teenagers playing in the football league has been arrested by the police. Instead of doing antisocial things and causing problems these teenagers are trying to behave properly!

The idea is already getting popular in other parts of Britain, and similar programmes will be started in other cities. Social workers are also trying to use “peer pressure” to get other positive results. If some more original ways are found, levels of crime among young people will soon be falling quickly.

Some people also think that a similar system should be used for professional footballers. If a professional player gets into a fight on the football ground, his team loses points. In this way footballers will try to behave with more respect to other players.

Another example of positive “peer pressure” is that there are fewer teenagers who smoke or take drugs. This is the result of the growing popularity of mobile phones. A mobile has become a new symbol of growing up. Teenagers no longer need to smoke to show that they are adults. Now they want to get a phone as cool as their classmates have.

*Peer pressure –the strong influence of a group, especially of children, on the members of that group to behave as everyone else does. What is your attitude to this project? Comment on

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