Homepage > Thai Youth Issues > RCA tops list of Bangkok night-spots for young students

Saturday Feb 10, 2001 (The Nation) - RCA tops the list of the 51 most popular night-spots for young people in Bangkok, while Central Department Store's Lad Phrao branch is the number one spot for brawls, said an official.

According to teenagers surveyed by the Police and the General Education Department, Route 66, Morgan, Oxygen, and Babybink at RCA are the most popular night-entertainment enclaves.

The survey found that at RCA 3, the venues most crowded with teenagers were Five Pub, Version Pub, T-Zone Pub, Fo-Bo Pub, Trick-Tact Pub, Zoom and Blue Eagle.

It found that other very fashionable hang-outs were Centre Point in Siam Square, Mah Boonkrong Centre, the shopping mall at Victory Monument and the movie theatres at Future Park.

Central Lad Phrao is known by teenagers as the place for brawls. For younger teenagers, the snooker club, games and video games at Imperial World (Lad Phrao) and Welco Department Store were also popular.

Suwinit Ubonlert, deputy director of Satriwit Withaya School, said apart from peer pressure, she believed problems at school and home were the major reasons why students were not well behaved.

"They have family problems and they have problems with friends and teachers. They skip school because they have not done their homework and fear they would be punished," she said.

Nikhom Charumanee, director of the Student Inspector Division, said that the most worrying trend was that it was becoming more fashionable for teenagers to have ecstasy and heroin parties in their dormitories and apartments.

He said problems were not solved because of the lack of co-operation from schools. Many teachers and directors did not accept that their students used drugs and hung out in night-spots, and ignored the problems.

Metropolitan Police Bureau deputy commander Pol Col Pramot Pathumwong said the police would crack down on night-time venues that served people younger than 18 years old. Although it is illegal for people under 18 to visit night-spots, police found many in such venues. More than 2,000 young students had been caught in night-spots over the past two months, he said.

Pramot said that the root cause of the problem was the children's upbringing at home and that the police could help with this. He said that schools could also help parents discipline students.

He said young people would be detained at police stations and their parents would be notified to pick them up. For young people from the provinces, they would be detained for one night and released the next day.

Police said they did not treat arrested young people as suspects but like a teacher would treat a student.

The General Education Department, the Metropolitan Police Bureau and the Children Foundation are to co-ordinate and draw up measures to prevent and solve the problems.

Other favourite hangouts for teenagers were found to be shopping malls, especially The Mall (Bang Khae, Ngarmwongwan, Bang Kapi, Ramkhamhaeng), Lotus (Bang Khae), Robinson Department Store (Bang Rak), Central Department Store (Rama III) and Seacon Square).

BY KAMOLTHIP BAI-NGERN

Teachers shocked by teen nightlife

The Nation, 16th February 2001

SOME teachers expressed shock and disbelief at what they discovered during a trip to trendy pubs along Royal City Avenue on Wednesday night.

The General Education Department led about 200 teachers on a tour of the district, where they found pubs filled with drunken minors, some of whom were in various stages of physical affection.

"I feel sad to see children so young risking their future for a momentary pleasure that they are probably unprepared for," one teacher said.

That night, police rounded up 85 youngsters under 18 from pubs located on what is known as "Sin Strip" among revellers. Most of them were released into a parent's custody after the police notified them of their children's behaviour.

Maj General Theerasak Nguanprasert, chief of Metropolitan Police Region 1, said he would impose a 10-day closure order for every pub found catering to minors.

Education official Damrong Sukhawan said teachers were shaken after seeing firsthand that their students were preoccupied with drinking, drugs and sex amid the blare of dance music.

"I think family members, teachers and other concerned people must sit down together and work out a solution on how to help young children resist the temptation of nightlife," one teacher said.

He said he was especially concerned about the young generation's changing moral values. In a culture of instant gratification, they tend to degrade sex from an expression of love into a means of physical pleasure and commercial gain, he said.

"A rising number of young and affluent girls are willing to sell their bodies in order to support their lifestyle."

BY PONGSAK BAI-NGERN

The Nation

Jailed youths from broken homes: police

The Nation, 16th February 2001

POLICE said yesterday that most of the underage revellers arrested at Royal City Avenue on Wednesday night came from "broken homes".

Eighty-five teenagers under 18 were arrested at various RCA nightspots. Police said they would file the information they gleaned from questioning them and their parents for future use.

Most of the youngsters questioned last night admitted that they had family problems. Many said their parents were divorced and they did not have a proper family life, Police Lieutenant Sawat Pakdee of the Children Safety Division under the Metropolitan Police Bureau said.

A 15-year-old girl from middle class background said her parents were divorced and had families of their own. She explained that she preferred to hang out with her older friends because they had more time for her. She said her group sells ecstasy pills and amphetamines and has rented an apartment to use for taking drugs and having sex.

This teenager lives with her aunt and often escapes her problems by spending time in RCA. "She cried every time I asked about her parents. She barely answered any of my questions," Sawat said.

Many of the teenage girls arrested last night said they were raped by their stepfathers and had chosen to stay with their friends. "These children envy those friends who come from happy families," he said.

However, not all teenagers arrested last night came from broken homes. Some came from good families but had chosen the path of sex and drugs due to peer pressure.

"When they finish their allowances, they often steal their parents' credit cards to buy things like mobile phones which they sell to their friends later," Sawat said.

Many of these teenagers are also forced by their older friends to deliver drugs and sell their bodies.

"They have no sense of morality and are ready to have sex just for a drink," Sawat said.

However, some children do face serious problems. "I called the parents of one 14-year-old girl I arrested, asking them to take her home, but they refused, saying they didn't want her. So I had to send her to one of the Social Welfare Department centres," he said.

Sawat said the girl had told him that she enjoyed going out and had not returned home for two years.

BY PONGSAK BAI-NGERN

The Nation