Surayud was presiding over the opening of "Young Expo 2006", which runs until tomorrow at Bangkok's Santichaiprakan Park on Phra Arthit Road.

The Thai Health Promotion Foundation, Social Development and Human Security Ministry and 18 youth networks are hosting the event to promote constructive activities and a stronger bond among youths.

Although society and youth agencies have been preaching to youths to be more educated and ethical, the final say rests with the youngsters themselves, Surayud said. Society, families, teachers and peers can only give them support, warnings, advice and opportunities, but it is they who will decide what they want to become when they grow up, he said.

If they aim to be outstanding adults, they must be diligent, prudent, knowledgeable and clever at solving problems, as well as united by Thai culture, and they should follow the Children's Day 2007 motto by taking virtue to heart, pursuing the sufficiency economy and avoiding vice.

Amornwich Nakornthap, director of the Ramjitti Institute of Thailand Research Fund, said the younger generation had been exposed to a risky environment, with establishments offering night entertainment, alcohol and tobacco taking up twice the space of venues holding constructive activities for youths "especially in the provinces, with a good economy and income per capita above Bt100,000 per year". He called on the government to reduce the space of evil, expand the space of good and zone vice-prone venues.

Too many took the wrong path, he said, quoting statistics that reckoned some 35,000 juveniles had committed crimes this year, a 5,000 rise from last year.

The number of children sent to remand homes also increased by 10 per cent, he said, citing the 2005-2006 report by the Child Watch Project, which studied child welfare at the provincial level.