Reducing “unhealthy screen time among children and young people”, including by applying the rule that the phone should be ‘at home or in the safe’ throughout the school day. A minimum age and helmet requirement for the fat bike. And a minimum age for purchasing nicotine-containing products of up to 21 years. The minority cabinet will first have to look for a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, but the plans have been included in this way in the coalition agreement ‘Getting started’. What do the youth themselves think of it?
“The what?” asks Nikki (17 years old) with wide eyes. “Coalition agreement? What is that?” Her friend Ilana (18) doesn’t know either. “Plans for politics? Oh no, that doesn’t interest me.” The friends have come to Utrecht from Doorn for a day of shopping, but first they want to smoke under the bubble roof at Utrecht Central Station. “These are homemade cigarettes.” Having your own cigarette maker makes them cheaper.
They are shocked at the plans to raise the age limit for tobacco. “What?! No, that rule is not necessary for me!” Nikki shrinks from the stress beforehand, but bounces back immediately afterwards. “Well, then my parents will buy it for me and yours will too.” Ilana nods and says: “And besides, I don’t buy it in the Netherlands. I buy it in Germany.” Making it yourself and buying it in Germany is even cheaper.
Under the bulbous roof it is an anthill. Stimuli everywhere. There is a disco ball in the shape of a heart for the I Light U light festival. Attention is drawn to organ harvesting in China. Ziggo has placed a wheel of fortune with flickering lights next to a bright orange bus. And under a party tent with the text ‘ask a Muslim, let’s talk’, people can discuss the Koran. Two women feed pigeons peanuts to catch them and remove the hair (“there’s a barber over there”) from their feet and prevent a slow amputation. And then there are the advertisements and shop windows. Young people are inundated with information, but none are aware of the content of the coalition agreement.
Klaas-Jan and Max from near Utrecht, both thirteen years old, think it sounds like an excellent idea to extend the age limit for nicotine. “I had already agreed with my parents that I would not smoke or vape,” says Max. “I think it’s a dirty habit,” says Klaas-Jan. They neither have nor need a fat bike. “My father thinks it’s crazy, so it’s not allowed,” says Max, shrugging his shoulders.
They are even okay with the phone-in-the-safety rule at school. Aren’t these very good answers for two teenagers? “No,” says Klaas-Jan. “We are in the first group, we just don’t know any better than that we are not allowed to have our phones in class.” The only thing that is sensitive is the age limit for social media. “I don’t think they should ban young people from doing that, because it’s just fun.” There should be a time limit, Max thinks. “But that is the responsibility of parents, I think.”
‘I hate fat bikes, get rid of them’
Two people in their early twenties who are spending a day shopping with a group of friends are not angry about the plans. But they don’t fully understand them either. Children can buy vapes anywhere, even when they are thirteen, ban or not, the two say. A male friend is very excited, despite the fact that he will not be bothered by the increase in age. Because why can you vote or drink at the age of eighteen, but not smoke?
Rocket (16) and Silas (17) came to Utrecht from Amsterdam for a record fair. “That is the hip thing now,” says Rocket. They are enthusiastic about the plans for the fat bike and nicotine. “It’s terrible, I hate fat bikes,” says Rocket. “Away with it.” And they are also completely okay with the age limit for social media – which they will no longer have to deal with.
They only have some doubts about the rule that the phone must be left in the safe all day. “I think it’s fine, but I think we are less the target group,” says Rocket. They are in pre-university education and think that students in the first, second or third years in particular will have difficulty with this. “They have more difficulty with discipline, I think,” says Silas. On the other hand, Rocket adds, they are from the generation that has of course become “very tech-dependent” due to corona.
Tech-dependent and looking for LPs at the fair in Utrecht. Are there any record fairs in Amsterdam? “Yes, but this one is XXL. So we really wanted to go here,” says Rocket. And immediately afterwards: “Now we really have to go.” They want to score record gems.
Most young people, once they have been informed of the plan, are only concerned about the rule that affects them. But Nikki and Ilana actually understand many of the rules. For example, they think it is right that helmets should be mandatory for fat bikes. “My brothers, aged 11 and 13, also know how to perform those things. So dangerous.” And, in retrospect, Nikki even understands the no-smoking-until-you-are-21 rule. “I often see younger children smoking, which is really not good.”
Minors are listed by first name only.
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