A significant number of young Syrians, aged 10 to 20, have grown up knowing nothing of Syria but what they have seen with their own eyes: war, poverty, poor living conditions and a deteriorating education system. Many of them, having lost years of their childhood, now spend their days aimlessly in the streets, video game parlors, or public parks. Many have dropped out of school, some have turned to smoking at young ages and developed various addictions, and others have put their own lives in danger as they become involved in criminal networks.
Teenagers Out of School
Years of war, and the displacement that accompanied it, have created a difficult social and economic landscape, and it is perhaps adolescents who have borne the heaviest burden. In the latest report published by UNICEF on March 15, 2024 (entitled “After 13 years of conflict in Syria, more children than ever in need of humanitarian assistance and a chance”), UNICEF Regional Director Adele Khodr says: “The sad reality is that today, and in the days ahead, many children in Syria will mark their 13th birthdays, becoming teenagers, knowing that their entire childhood to date has been marked by conflict, displacement and deprivation.” The report stated that nearly half of school-aged children are out of school. It is these children the regime government’s former Minister of Education, Darem Tabbaa, referenced when he said, “Unfortunately, many of them are war orphans. They live on the streets, and people exploit them and employ them, and we are unable to follow up on the issue as a ministry.”
Syria’s economic deterioration has led to an increase in school dropout rates, pushing children to enter the labor market prematurely or leaving them homeless and more susceptible to exploitation by crime and begging networks. Children who do not go to school are at risk of ending up in situations completely inappropriate for children. Even for those who do go to school, the thorny question remains: How do they spend their time inside and outside school?
The Impact of Social Media
The huge advancement of technology in recent years and the ubiquitous spread of social media have introduced a different kind of conflict for teenagers in Syria. It is only natural for them to compare their own daily lives to those of teenagers in other countries – which they are constantly exposed to through dramas (especially those translated or dubbed from foreign languages) and video clips shared online. Seeing their peers enjoying quiet or even luxurious lives, celebrating or traveling and going on holiday in various places, naturally leads to feelings of inadequacy, particularly regarding clothes and physical appearance – matters of great importance to teenagers.
This daily social media use has become a sort of addiction for many, stoking feelings of loneliness and frustration, lack of self-confidence, and depression. For adolescents, these feelings can manifest in aggression and all-consuming resentment.
Teenage Gangs
A simple search on the Syrian Ministry of Interior’s Facebook page reveals a disturbing trend. Dozens of daily posts give details on a wide variety of crimes committed, including murder, robbery, theft, kidnapping, harassment and gang activity. Alarmingly, both perpetrators and victims are mostly teenagers.
The official Tishreen newspaper published a headline about “teenage gangs” in Ain Mneen, an area very close to the capital Damascus, stating that such gangs have become a worrying phenomenon in that area. In fact the phenomenon has become widespread in many Syrian governorates and regions, where we hear daily about groups of teenagers committing various offenses. The question remains: What drives teenagers to form these gangs? Why do they do it?
Aside from the psychological factors already mentioned, other factors push teenagers to this way of life. The most important is, of course, economic hardship. Syrian families suffer from deteriorating financial circumstances, especially those who were displaced from their homes and are forced to spend all their earnings on rented accommodation. Families who have lost their main breadwinner, as well as those whose breadwinner has been unable to keep up with daily expenses, are also especially vulnerable.
“Syrians face increasing and intolerable hardship. Nearly 17 million of them need humanitarian aid such as food, water and medical care,” said Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, in an article published in the New York Times. Teenagers, of course, are mostly not concerned with these circumstances, but what does concern them is the need for money to buy clothes, a new mobile phone, perhaps gifts between boys and girls, and to go out with their friends – or to spend time in gyms, parks, restaurants or nightclubs. When these normal teenage needs cannot be easily met, many of them are pushed to seek alternatives.
Drugs are one of these alternatives, now accessible to everyone due to their low prices. It has become common to see young people taking drugs in the streets and in schools. Some say that two years ago a pack of Pregabalin pills was sold for as little as 5000 lira, contributing to widespread addiction among teens, especially in middle and high school. People here in Damascus chatter about how surprised they are at “how the dealers escape from the security services, and aren’t even subjected to much harassment.” Others I spoke to alleged that “the security services are the ones who help them, and they’re the ones who provide them with these substances.” Syria’s role as a major drug manufacturer and exporter is very well known, and has become a threat to neighboring countries and the entire region.
Premature Entry into the Job Market
While some teenagers fall prey to criminal networks, others are forced to leave school and enter the job market prematurely. In Damascus, it is increasingly common to see children working in the streets and in shops, standing on stalls and pulling carts – especially those who buy or collect used materials or scrap metal for recycling. The latter is a widespread phenomenon among children and teenagers. Hundreds of them can be seen daily, roaming the streets with carts or bags, sifting through garbage containers for anything that can be sold to provide income for them and their families.
PlayStation
Damascus has seen an increase in gaming parlors for young people, teenagers and even children, especially in the popular neighborhoods. Pool tables and table football are popular, but the past years have also witnessed the opening of many electronic gaming shops.
These parlors are hubs of constant activity, day and night. You cannot pass by one of them at any time of day or night without being drawn to the number of young men and teens inside, and their loud voices. I have never been curious to enter one of them, and I have in fact avoided passing by them most of the time. But while preparing this report, I decided to go into one, dozens of questions running through my mind.
Inside, I found rows of screens displaying PlayStation games, a cooler stocked with drinks, a number of hookahs, blaring music that could be heard from the street. The space was filled with children and teenagers, some sitting and playing, others standing, watching and cheering.
“Hello, when do you stay open until?”
“We open at 7am and stay open until around 2am.”
“Why, are there always people playing?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“What about electricity?”
“Well, we installed solar panels, so electricity isn’t an issue.”
“How do you pay, and how much does it cost?”
“Is this your first time visiting a parlor?”
“Yes, it is actually.”
“Well, depends on what you want to play!”
“Honestly, I don’t want to play! But I am doing a study on how young people and children live. I want to know, how much do they spend? And where do they spend their time? As long as you don’t have a problem telling me, that is.”
“No, not at all. There’s a pool table, and there’s electronic games. A round of pool costs five thousand.”
“How long is the round?”
“Well, it depends on the players, it might end in a minute or it might last half an hour.”
“And the electronic games?”
“Every game has its own price. There’s a lot of games, but the most popular is football – 3000 gets you a turn for ten minutes. And there’s a football game with cars called Rocket League, also 3000 for a turn. Counter-Strike is old, but it’s famous and it still works – 5000 gets you a turn for 25 minutes. And there are other fighting games and car racing games and that kind of thing. There are also virtual reality games – they need special glasses that can cost up to 50,000 an hour. I don’t have any of them, but lots of stores do. And there are also stores that have PlayStation 5 – their prices are much higher because I’ve got a PlayStation 4. That’s to say nothing of the championships that young people organize among themselves, in pool and in the games: they do leagues and challenges among themselves, sometimes the team is 3 or 4 people, and each team pays 50,000, and the team that wins takes all the money. Of course, aside from that, lots of young men play with each other for money. Honestly, we don’t interfere with them, we only watch them and take the game fee.”
“Okay, but where do the kids get the money to play? You know, the situation is very difficult for everyone these days.”
“Honestly, we don’t ask, it’s nothing to do with us, but most of the kids here have dropped out of school and are working, and some of them take money from their families. There is a boy whose father passed away, and every day he spends about 300 thousand. He said that his relatives abroad send him money. There is another boy like him who also spends about 200 or 300 thousand every day, but his father’s alive. I don’t know what he does for a living, but he carries two iPhones, and most of his friends play at his expense.”
When I left the parlor, one of the young men standing at the door told me, “This place makes more than a million every day from those kids.”
Fights and Violence
As I left the shop just after midnight, the electricity was out and the street was dark. On the corner of a side street, I noticed a group of young men and women, none older than 16, talking and laughing loudly. What struck me most was that almost all of them were holding a cigarette in one hand and a mobile phone in the other, taking pictures and blasting music. One young man was holding a penknife with a foldable wooden handle, and was opening and closing it to show off in front of the others.
These scenes have become commonplace at all times and places – in public parks, cafes and markets, on main or side streets, at school gates as students come in and out. These gatherings can escalate into violent confrontations, and more than once the media has been abuzz with incidents of assault between school students. In many cases, these incidents have led to great physical and psychological harm to the assaulted students, and sometimes to the imprisonment of the assailants.
After these fights, you always hear people muttering, “If these kids had parents to control them, they wouldn’t be doing this.” Indeed, most of these young men and women have been deprived of their guardians – be it fathers, mothers or siblings. Some have died or been arrested, some have traveled or had to serve in the regime’s army for years; some work from dawn to dusk, struggling to earn enough to support their families, and know little about their children’s activities or whereabouts.
Smartphone Addiction
The most difficult, dangerous and pervasive addiction is to mobile phones, tablets, and the games that come with them. While this is a global phenomenon, in Syria it has ceased to be a mere “trend.” Many teenagers spend days on end playing popular mobile games such as PUBG, Free Fire, Fortnite, Minecraft, Honor of Kings, and of course various football games. What’s most concerning is that these games captivate people of all ages, situations, and backgrounds. You’ll find most young people and children, and even some older adults, constantly glued to their phones, as if existing in another universe, oblivious to their surroundings.
But the greatest danger lies with teenagers who do not recognize the value of the time they’re wasting on these games, nor the money they’re spending. The need for the latest mobile devices to keep up with these constantly evolving games leads them to spend more and more money on in-game purchases and upgrades. One woman told me that her son will not stop asking her daily for tens of thousands of lira to upgrade a game – a game she knows nothing about, except that it’s played on his phone. She finds herself forced to meet his demands, for fear that he might resort to taking money from home without her knowledge, or from somewhere else, if she refuses.
The prices of modern mobile phones in Syria today have reached the millions, especially after the increase in “mobile customs” fees (as the regime calls them), which have become higher than the price of the phone itself. Most parents find themselves unable to meet their children’s needs, but at the same time are forced to, fearing that they might turn to undesirable alternatives – so they borrow money or buy a mobile phone in installments for their son or daughter to waste their time playing on. One father told me that he had no problem with it, preferring to see his son sitting in front of him and playing on his mobile phone, rather than not knowing where he is or which friends he is with, or what he might be doing.
Mobile addiction is not limited to games. Social media has become a part of teenagers’ lives, and poor economic conditions have led many young people, especially teenagers, to seek ways to make money online. Ways to make money online vary: some turn to well-known platforms like YouTube or Facebook, which are the most popular in Syria, or TikTok, which is less common due to being banned in the country. They film and upload video clips, regardless of the content, hoping to get views and make money, while others go to platforms that rely on extended live broadcasting.
What Other Solutions?!
A family finding reasonable sources of income in these harsh conditions can protect their children from many risks, but it does not provide a sustainable solution in the face of dead ends and poor educational and social conditions. This is especially true in a city that lacks enough space to accommodate the needs of teens, even for those whose families have money.
For many teenagers and their families, there is no solution except planning to travel, which is no easy feat. Everyone feels that their future is blocked, and this feeling is acute for teenagers and young adults whose future is ahead of them. Most of them find it difficult to think about and move towards a future inside Syria in its current circumstances.
But despite all that has been said above, many families do everything they can to protect their children and provide them with reasonable conditions, shielding them from all the obstacles mentioned. Many young people are exerting tremendous effort to overcome their difficult circumstances, defending the hope for a better life and broader horizons.
