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Taipei publishes `little helpers' to guide teenagers

Seeking to help teenagers with the trials of adolescence, the information department of the Taipei City Government yesterday released a set of books called Guidebook for Taipei's e-generation.

The four-volume set, designed and published by the department, aims to help navigate teens through problems relating to puberty, academics, friendship, dating and family relationships. It also contains legal information.

"By talking about all these issues from a teen's point of view and by using lively designs and vocabulary, we hope teens will enjoy reading them while finding answers to their questions concerning their physical changes and psychological development," department spokesman Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said yesterday.

Wu said the four volumes each address one major topic: the body, relationships, self-understanding and legal matters.

Wu added that by designing the books to be the size of a music CD, "we hope the teens will come to carry them around and that the books will become their little helpers."

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who attended the series' launch, echoed Wu's remarks.

Ma said that in today's e-society, "the issues and problems teens confront are much more diverse and we hope the teens find these books helpful in their daily lives."

Ma stressed teens often "lack understanding and awareness," especially in legal matters.

"Many teens do not realize that their practical jokes and mischievous behavior sometimes are actually in violation of civil law," Ma said.

Ma said some seemingly harm-less behavior, such as taking friends' belongings without permission, jumping over the MRT's turnstile, forging parents' signatures and bullying classmates, "can actually be in violation of the law and might result in fines and prison sentences."

During the presentation, Ma also commented on the information and entertainment options enjoyed by today's youth.

"In my youth, there were only three TV stations and the newspaper only published three pages per day," he said.

"And there was no such things as McDonald's, Tower Records, cybercafes, KTVs or videogames," he said, adding that when he was young, the coolest thing to do was to go to a movie and for coffee with a date.
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