Text tabled : A6-0212/2007

  Miroslav Mikolášik (PPE-DE). – (SK) In substance, juvenile delinquency is an alarming phenomenon due to its mass scale. We have witnessed the growth of a number of crimes committed by children under 13 years old. Unfortunately, statistics show that these crimes are becoming crueller. Reasons for juvenile delinquency are surely multi-factorial, for example, socio-economic conditions, the environments where youth gather, family and school, the gang milieu, improper friends, and the early abuse of alcohol and all kinds of drugs.

I would like to praise the fact that, unlike in the recent past, the adopted document finally stresses the absolutely indispensable role of a close family, in which the father and mother devote sufficient time to their children. Otherwise, in the formation of their personalities, children will lack any role models in their own family. At last, the recommendation has been given that the Member States should furnish adequate support for families and parents. I am also appealing to all stakeholders to speak up and restrict the constant display of excessive violence, pornographic scenes, and scenes showing drug consumption in the mass media. Such images also appear on Internet sites or in generally available videogames. I am glad to see that the way forward is not only through repression of negative phenomena but, first and foremost, through primary prevention.