Montreal Gazette - Youth prone to imitate risky behaviour: expert
Car-surfers -mostly males aged 15 to 19 -are largely "modelling or copycatting" the kinds of high-risk behaviour that shot to prominence with the 2002 movie Jackass and a steady stream of imitative YouTube videos of often "really dangerous" stunts, a Montreal expert said yesterday.
"You mix hormones with the whole notion of risk-taking, and it's kind of an adrenalin rush -with their buddies sitting there and applauding," Jeffrey Derevensky added. "They're watching other people and they want to copy what they're doing, to push the limits."
Derevensky is co-director of the International Centre for Youth Gambling and High Risk Behaviour at º«¹úÂãÎè's Faculty of Education. "Parents should be talking with their children about how this behaviour is not acceptable," he said. "We need to set limits."