Action Plan for Children, but said adults should be teaching young people how to respect each other.

And she said Members of Parliament should be leading the way and setting a good example when they addressed each other.

The action plan, which serves as Bermuda's method of implementing all aspects of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, was discussed in the House of Assembly yesterday.

Mrs. Young welcomed the report, but said many aspects of it had been United Bermuda Party initiatives.

She said: "What is the Government doing to teach our children not to be biased, not to be racist and not to be prejudiced? "We have to show the young people what it means by our actions. We can start right here in this chamber for the children's sake.

"We should do away with the lack of tolerance for each other. Do away with the racial remarks that we make to each other. We have to be more respectful to one another.'' Health Minister Nelson Bascome outlined the aim of the action plan and said its main objectives were to ensure that children had rights, were listened to and were protected.

He said: "The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) entitles children to specific rights, for example the right to protection from abuse, discrimination and harmful work along with the right to education, a safe and healthy life and the right to special care if disabled.

"The convention is rooted in the concept that the child's path from total dependency to adulthood is gradual and therefore must be protected.

"Let's be clear, we as children may have gotten spanks, and we may all be better for it today. I am talking about abuse, babies being beaten for crying, children being beaten with clothes wires, straps and irons. Sent to bed without food, exposed to sexual acts and drug abuse.'' He said the convention was unique in that it was the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights.

It states that a child is someone of 18 years or younger and that: * They should enjoy full rights without discrimination or distinction of any kind.

* The child's best interests be a primary consideration in all actions concerning children.

* Each child has an inherent right to life and party nations shall, as far as possible, ensure the child's survival and development.

* Children have the right to be heard.

And Mr. Bascome said Bermuda had been commended for its comprehensive response to the convention by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which had asked for a copy of the Island's report to be sent to Geneva.

But Mrs. Young said no matter where the report was sent, it would not mean a thing unless it was acted upon in Bermuda.

And she said although she agreed with Government that parents were the first and foremost people responsible for children, she said Government should not shirk its responsibilities.

"Government must support parents with material assistance and support parents when they need it,'' added Mrs. Young.

"When families can't meet the needs of children, it's up to society and the Government to fill in and meet their needs.

"We have to get to the root of our children's bad behaviour. Most people agree that poor parenting is the root of the problems. We have to do something about that.

"We have to spend the money at the front end of the problem and not at the back end.'' She said more emphasis should be placed on parenting classes, counselling, early days education, psychiatric help and public awareness, rather than on young criminals.

And she said Government should adopt a zero tolerance attitude to all drugs, not just the ones considered hard.

Other matters of concern to her included the access of violence and sex to children via the TV, along with "hateful song lyrics''.

All of these could be better monitored, she said.

But she said, most of all, children needed to be loved, respected and told they had a purpose and role in life -- that was what Government should be aiming to achieve.

The shadow minister said Government should commit itself to lifting the self esteem of youngsters.

She added: "It's our duty to do what's best for our children and if that means doing a blitz on programmes than so be it.'' Mrs. Young called for a national campaign to hammer home the message of good parenting.

She suggested milk cartons and shopping bags could carry advice for parents.

She said: "Publicise the convention for everyone to see so our children receive the rights they deserve.

"I want to call on Government to spend some of the ever increasing allocations of money for travel, fast ferries and bigger buildings on educating parents, helping parents who are having a difficult time with their children. "Strengthen the family unit is a preventative measure at the front end so we don't need to build a $9 million facility to put our children in.

"Government's aim is that this big facility should become a white elephant.'' A 24-hour, seven day a week hotline was also needed for desperate parents to get information said Ms. Young who also called for an outreach team to help black males.

Mrs. Young also said there was a silent crime of incest occurring which Government needed to address.

"People seem to turn a blind eye to such a distasteful subject but we should include questions on the next child abuse survey this year to gauge the prevalence of incest in our community.'' Ms. Young also called on the Government to honour its pledge to abolish corporal punishment.

And she slammed slack sentences including a suspended sentence given to a mother who beat her child 23 times with a belt buckle and a six-month sentence for a father who abused his five month old baby.

PLP backbencher Arthur Hodgson confessed his shortcomings to Parliament yesterday.

"I don't now and I never have lived up to those things I espouse,'' he told Parliamentarians during the debate on the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child.

But the failure to teach values was everyone's shortcoming, he said.

"I bear the community's guilt in having failed the generation that is behind us.

"(Values) is a subject that we tend to leave out. The subject of values is our (PLP) platform.

"It says we're going to teach values but you haven't heard anything since because it's a touchy subject.

"We don't want to be embarrassed by the fact that we haven't lived up to the values that we espouse.

"There is an undercurrent of misery which people cover up,'' he said.

Mr. Hodgson said Shadow Health Minister Kim Young, and the Opposition took credit for a host of programmes started under their term in Government.

"The fact of the matter is they have failed and it would be to our shame should we continue those failing polices,'' he said.

Reading from a UBP report, Mr. Hodgson said the average age of mothers had increased since 1985.

"There are implications in those figures.'' And in 1995, one-third of all children born were to unwed mothers -- only 25 percent of new mothers, in the 20 to 24-years old bracket, were married.

And 25 percent of children were being cared for through the intervention of the court system, said Mr. Hodgson -- himself a former family court magistrate.

"Having been appointed to the Cabinet and this being an urgent matter, before dealing with my own ministry, I sought an audience with the relevant minister,'' he said.

A measure to stabilise family units, according to Mr. Hodgson, was to let the children born to unwed parents keep the father's last name.

"The changing of the names doesn't really deal with the problem. Then we had women rights, then gay rights and now we've got children's rights.

"That's ridiculous. Where we have failed is parental responsibility. There are parents who have not shouldered their responsibility.

"The concept of family is being attacked from every side despite the fact that human history has had 6,000 years of experience in bringing up children,'' he said.

Mr. Hodgson said once the age-old principles of child rearing were properly applied, they worked.

Sociologists repeat "statistic after statistic of who's in prison'' but there are exceptions and that is due to proper parenting, said Mr. Hodgson.

"There are innumerable people who have been brought up in the most adverse conditions.

"And there are people who are given the best circumstances of families and turn out to be rogues,''he said.

He referred to the old-adage that it takes a village to raise a child.

Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister John Barritt said throwing money at the problem and carrying on with the same failing methods would not bring change.

He said it was ironic that people were required to have a licence to drive yet no qualifications were needed to raise children.

"It's easier to get married than divorced. Perhaps it ought to be the other way around.'' He said life skills needed to form a core part of the curriculum rather than as an add-on.

"I am not saying we throw out reading, writing and arithmetic. But if we find what it takes to raise a child is not being learned it needs to be taught.

"That's real education that will bring benefit not just to students but to the community.'' Mr. Barritt said a profile of what makes a successful child needed to be drawn up to help future policy.

Former school principal Dale Butler said lack of parental control was landing teachers in an impossible position.

"Children are coming from homes where they haven't had adequate rest and by 10 o'clock they are nodding off.

"You can't teach them. How can the teacher possibly be held accountable if they have not had food or sleep?'' Mr. Butler reaffirmed his belief in corporal punishment to provide a short sharp shock to troublesome children.

And he mocked restrictions on punishments which meant children were ending up in control.

He said: "There's even a danger if you raise your voice to children because that's emotional abuse. Those parents come in and the Coalition for the Protection of Children all come in.

"Teachers come in the next day de-motivated.'' Mr. Butler also said churches were not spreading the right message.

He said: "Ministers who used to preach about hell are now preaching that they want another $10,000 for air conditioning. I don't want air conditioning if the world is coming to an end.

"They are always raising money for another big building. They are not addressing the needs of the family or children in particular.'' Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott defended an ancient African proverb after members from Opposition questioned it's validity.

Mr. Scott said the term `it takes a whole village to raise a child' is very applicable in Bermuda.

Mr. Scott said: "It was very very good tuition in Africa and it would be very good tuition here.

"I felt that the whole (point) embodied in that proverb was missed,'' he said.

"In my view, that proverb is still very very real. Remember when we were coming along and your parent had to go somewhere.'' Mr. Scott said the neighbour would look after the child, irrespective of that person's opinion of the child.

And when, as a child, he woke up and did not want to go to church, school or another activity, his mother would say to the neighbour, "I don't know what's wrong with this child''.

"And the neighbour would come up with six or seven remedies.'' Mr. Scott said: "That's what's meant by the village raising the child -- everybody helps.

"Maybe, just maybe, we have missed the very real contribution to the nurturing of the youngster and that is when the neighbour, the community, the whole country contributes toward the raising of the child. That's a village acting in the interest of the child,'' he said.

Premier Jennifer Smith said: "The young people of today are nothing like we were.

Ms Smith said young people want to know why for everything, referring to a keynote speaker's point of view at a recent PRIDE youth conference.

"They are sometimes referred to as the `Why? generation'.'' The Premier said it was the responsibility of the adults to learn how to respond to the inquiring minds, providing reasonable and clear answers.

And the Youth and Sports shadow minister, Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, said youth sports was a viable means to introduce children to productive lifestyles and burning up energy that could be used for troublesome purposes.

But she also expressed dismay at the increase of teenage pregnancy and young mothers.

"We have several children who have had children. We're having grandmothers at age 29,'' she said.

She said she experienced being a young mother but thanks to her strong family bonds, her daughter grew up in a loving home.

She said those same bonds were being tested across the Island.

Fighting for children: MP Kim Young