This week's columnist is a 20-year-old student Lucy-Anne Bottomley, from Nab Wood, currently on a gap year. She will be starting at Trinity and All Saints College in Horsforth in September to study journalism.

In the week that showed anti-social behaviour orders had dramatically risen it is inevitable that we ask ourselves what is in store for the future.

If the overused phrase 'children are the future' is to be believed then now is the time to panic.

Alarming statistics published this week revealed that 7,356 anti-social behaviour orders or Asbos have been handed out since 1999, 43 per cent of those to under-18s.

A prime example of 'Asbo culture' is Leanne Black, a 14-year-old from Berkshire, who has just been sentenced to four months in juvenile detention for drink driving. Now unless this is the first time you have picked up a newspaper you could not have missed Leanne Black.

Miss Black turned up to court appropriately dressed in a white tracksuit and pink Burberry-style scarf with an array of gold sovereign rings adorning most fingers. However the most interesting thing about the photos, published in just about every newspaper up and down Britain, is that apparently Leanne Black felt the need to pelt the photographers with eggs.

After the sentence was read out by the magistrate Leanne, described in one newspaper as the real-life Vicky Pollard, of Little Britain fame, showed her disapproval in the normal way. She went on a rampage of trashing the court room, throwing a two litre jug of water over the magistrate and then attacked the prosecuting solicitor.

However to wholly blame the child can not be right, I believe in the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate. That is to say, I think the parents and environment a child is raised in contributes to their character.

Leanne's parents, Maurice and Nora, were by their daughter's side for every part of her court case. They were there drinking with her when she was 12 right up to purchasing the eggs Leanne used to pelt the photographers.

Beaming with pride, Nora said: "I've got seven kids and I'm proud of every one of them.

They've all been in trouble with the law but that's life."

Mr and Mrs Black believe they have set their daughter up for life as "the world would be a safer place if kids were taught to look after themselves like Leanne." So that would be 12year-olds drink driving then would it?

I personally believe this 'Asbo culture' stems from a blatant lack of disrespect apparent everywhere in today's society. Being a student on a gap year I am obviously poor so public transport is often my main form of travel. This is where I witness most of the lack of respect today's youth display. Starting with the baseball cap-wearing lad wearing his trousers tucked into his socks, blasting tinny house music out of his mobile phone. Does he really believe everyone wants to listen to his music?

Then there's the girl whose handbag needs a seat all to itself, never mind the elderly woman getting on with nowhere to sit.

Worst of all is the fact that, for young people like me, we are all getting tarred with the same brush. Not everyone is selfish and anti-social.