There is an added problem for students these days, isn't there? We all know that young people are impressionable, as we were at that age, however, when we were in uni all those years ago, it was not so important to have all the 'right gear' and the pressure from advertisers was not as sophisticated as it is now.
OK, you might have wanted a designer sweater, watch or jeans, but it stopped there. Nowadays, kids want designer everything.
Especially electronics. All kids want an Apple iPad and Internet access. We needed $1 to phone home; now they need a $400 iPad and a $20 a month broadband connection. Plus all the designer clothing.
Parents are having a hard time keeping up and girls are going on the game in order to be able to buy these things themselves. If you don't believe me, look at the stories in the press; look on the Internet (19.5 million sites on 'American college girl porn') and look in the bars.
Stories regularly appear in the press about students, especially foreign students, who moonlight in Britain as call girls. Not all of them, of course not, but then the children of more well-off parents are not so hard up, are they?
"Behind The Smile" ~ the story of Lek, a bar girl in Pattaya ~ is the story of a girl who drifted into the tourist sex industry for lack of education. However, it is a good-earner for her until she realises that her daughter might soon become aware of what she does for a living and she cannot bear that prospect.
Lek becomes desperate to get out of her predicament, because she hates the thought that her daughter will think that her mother's lifestyle is acceptable. Her daughter lives 500 km away, but Lek knows that word gets around. She would not be able to see her daughter again, if she knew that her mother was a prostitute in the sex tourism industry.
This predicament befalls far too many in our 'modern society' and is a cause for shame for all governments all over the world. Governments should be more interested in the quality of life of the people who elected them. Funds should be made available to young people who qualify so that they can continue their education without undue financial worries.
This will not necessarily clear up the problem, but it will mean that kids do not have to consider prostitution or crime as a possible way of funding their university education.
