The Wire

Gangs of youths roaming the streets ? this threatening picture, painted by many tabloid papers, helps to feed into fears that older Australians have about the youth of today. Young people, who have nowhere else to go but to hang out on the street, in turn feel alienated and cut off from the mainstream society. Well, a new plan dreamt up by Townsville-based James Cook University academic, Dr Sue Bandaranaike, aims to change all that. Dr Bandaranaike thinks that growing cites like Townsville need to build technohubs. These are places for young people to hang out, get online, create cyber art and gain some training and mentoring from older Australians along the way. She recently presented a paper on the initial findings of her study on public perceptions around crime and anti-social behaviour. She feels this project would help divert at risk kids from getting caught up in the criminal justice system.