KEY POINTS:
A group of teenage friends having a party at a large Herne Bay home, owned by professional people, sounds like nothing to worry about. Any other night, the party that ended with the murder of teenage schoolboy Augustine Borrell might have passed uneventfully.
But, as Youthline developer Ramon Narayan says, tragedies like this can happen in any environment. But parents can't keep their children grounded in the fear that something might go wrong.
"It was an awful, awful thing to happen. But that doesn't mean it will happen this weekend, or any weekend."
Narayan says information is the key - find out about the party, where it is, who's in charge. Drop your child off and collect them, or at least make sure they have credit on their phone to call you. Make sure your child keeps you in the loop, tells you when something feels dodgy.
It was the modern-day jungle telegraph of texting which brought Augustine's alleged killer to Herne Bay last weekend.
Gangstas - what these teenagers call themselves - are one of the most obvious youth tribes roaming today's schools and malls. Police officer Willie Maea tries to impress upon parents and teachers the importance of identifying gang colours, and keeping them out of the home and classroom.
The colours of red and blue stand for two notorious, warring Brooklyn gangs idolised in popular American hip hop/rap - the red for the Bloods, blue for the Crips. And there are homegrown examples like the yellow-marked Killa Beez.
"It might be just an infatuation, [the teenagers] just think it's cool, Maea says. "In one street it might be a fun thing, in another you might get a hiding for wearing the wrong colour."
Check out the streets, malls and public places and you'll spot them, today's youth tribes. The list is long and, at times, complex as members of one tribe cross over into another: gangstas, emos, skaters, preps, boyracers, geeks, Christian musos, and a miscellany of smaller tribes such as metallers and indiekids.
Which scene teenagers gravitate towards will depend on the dominant scenes at school and their interests. Whether they gravitate towards the harmful fringes is a more vexed matter.
Gangstas have attracted the worst headlines. But youth workers say the violence and drug problems are, in the main, confined to a small minority. Many gangstas adopt the lingo and the look and hang in a crew, but mostly keep out of trouble.
Says Allan Va'a, who runs Otara youth club 274, "Just because a kid wears a bandana or his cap around the wrong way, that doesn't mean he's in a gang."
Youth workers say drug abuse, violence, risky sex and self-harm cross all tribes. Emos are teased about their self-harming stereotype, but Penney Lucas, of the Hibiscus Coast Youth Centre, says she sees more non-emos than emos cutting and burning themselves.
But often there's no outward signs that teenagers have aligned themselves with a tribe.
Va'a warns that young boys who are well-behaved at home and achieving at school may be leading secret gangsta lives on the streets.
So when is it time to worry? What does it mean if your 13-year-old son starts wearing eye-liner? Or calling girls "ho ass niggas"? Should you worry if your daughter morphs into a mini-Paris Hilton? Or just go with the flow?
Staying connected is vital, say the experts. Disconnection and alienation from parents and wider society exposes young people to the risks of peer pressure, a pressure turbo-boosted by the internet and texting.
Don't sweat the small stuff, advises Lucas. "As long as it's safe, don't get overwhelmed by it. There's a difference between teenage behaviour and unsafe behaviour. Wagging is teenager behaviour, but wagging and getting drunk at their friend's place is unsafe behaviour... If you let 80 per cent of what doesn't matter go, as long as the kids are no risk to themselves or others, most kids will grow out of it."
Other tips: find opportunities to hang out with your teen, whether it's going for a coffee or playing PlayStation. If you're worried about a new friend being a bad influence, it's generally better to bring them into the fold rather than ban your child from associating with them, unless they pose an obvious danger.
Social withdrawal may be a more worrying sign than a new, weirdly dressed crowd. "Just because they want to shut the door and listen to music, that's not a cause for alarm," says Narayan.
"But if all of a sudden they're not hanging out with anyone, that would be a sign there's something more going on."
Dummy's Guide To Youth Tribes ...
EMO
Look: Black dominates, hair dyed black and heavily styled (a long fringe brushed to one side is a signature look), piercings, heavy make-up with black eyeliner and black nail polish on both sexes, individualised by one-off accessories and bursts of colour.
Music: Originally a hardcore punk subgenre that emerged in Washington in the mid-80s, emo has since shifted mainstream - to the despair of aficionados - and the label has been attached to a variety of rock/punk/goth bands with brooding, introspective lyrics or the emo look. Examples: AFI, Bright Eyes.
Scene: "Emo" is short for emotional, and stereotypical traits include emotional candidness, sensitivity, shyness, introversion and melancholy. Emo culture values expressiveness and individuality, so many ostensible emos reject the label. Bisexuality is acceptable. Because of some song lyrics, self-harming has become associated with the emo culture, but youth workers say self-harming is no more common in this tribe than it is in any other. Emos hang out in certain public spots and at each other's places. Alcohol and dope are the most common drugs.
Subtribes: Screamo - chaotic, aggressive music subgenre; G-emo - Gangsta-emo cross; W-emo - disparaging term for "wannabe" emos. Emos are often confused with Goths - which form a distinct tribe descended from their early 1980s Cure-styled predecessors (characterised by a camp theatricality alongside a morbid, romantic aesthetic). Sub-tribes include Candy Goths (girls who wear short skirts) and Cyber Goths (favour fluoro colours).
GANGSTAS
Look: African American hip-hop - expensive, baggy branded T-shirts and hoodies with baggy pants and caps for boys (bros); puffer jackets, fitting T-shirts, mini-skirts and leggings for girls (hos). Bling (flashy, fake diamond and gold jewellery). Colours of associated gang worn on clothing or bandanas around arms.
Music: Hip hop and rap. Examples: 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, The Game. Hard-hitting, swaggering, macho lyrics about (and sometimes promoting) violence, hedonism and a criminal lifestyle predominate.
Scene: Gangsta culture is modelled on LA teen gangs, but hasn't reached the same extremes of violence here. There's a lot of "smack (threatening) talk", but most of the violence is perpetrated by a small minority. A large city school may have five self-styled crews, led by originators, and identified by a certain colour.
A strong code compels them to watch their bros' backs and follow the originator's orders.
Apart from jumping (attacking) people in opposing gangs, the criminal side of this culture includes tagging, stealing cellphones and cash, and drug-dealing. Alcohol and dope are the most common drugs. Gangsta boys often attract Preps or Plastics.
Subtribes: Hood rats are the ones who get into serious trouble. Prospects act as "bum-boys" for hood rats in their attempt to make the grade; Wigga is the disparaging term for well-off, white wannabes who adopt the posturing but keep their noses clean.
CHRISTIAN MUSOS
Look: Anything from high street fashions to emo.
Music: Rock, pop, hip-hop r&b, and emo. Examples: Third Day, Brooke Fraser.
Scene: The Christian music scene has exploded in the past decade, broadening its appeal and expression. This year, the scene's major festival, Parachute, drew 28,000 people. Festival manager Joel Ulbricht says although Parachute imposes an alcohol and drug ban, the scene has shed its goody-two-shoes image. "It's become more acceptable for people to have issues. There's been a lot more grace shown." Nor can the scene's stars be expected to be paragons of virtue, though they all believe in Jesus.
Sub-tribes: Eco-Christians put a Christian spin on the mainstream eco movement.
PREPS
Look: Fashion is paramount, the most expensive brands you can afford, flawless hair and make-up. Think Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
Music: Top 40, especially R&B, techno and dance music.
Scene: The term originated, like most youth tribe monikers, from the United States, where the strict meaning is upper class girls who go to preparatory school.
Here, it covers girls who love fashion, shopping, parties and clubbing (often under age - fake IDs are easy to come by). May go out with gangstas (usually the benign wiggas) or metros (young metrosexual clubbers, who may be in a band and be geeks). Popular girls and cheerleaders often fall into this tribe. Alcohol and drug choice depends on what they can afford, or charm off boys.
Subtribes: Plastics are the bitchy, materialistic, superficial uber-preps caricatured in the film Mean Girls.
BOY RACERS
Look: Boys wear jeans and T-shirts, often from surfie labels, and girls wear the tightest, shortest skirts and tops they can find. Dreads on boys is an option. Ultimately, boy racers care far more about their cars' appearance than their own.
Music: Anything with road-vibrating bass, such as gangsta hip-hop or rock.
Scene: Socialising revolves around cars. Boy racers gather in city streets, car parks and at organised meets to compare their throbbing creations and discuss their intricacies in jargon that would probably make an average mechanic's head spin. Some claim to be car enthusiasts who mean no harm, but drag racing and burnouts in public spaces have earned them notoriety, as have several high-profile fatalities. The culture prizes daredevil, high-octane antics and anti-authoritarian posturing, and its main drug of choice is booze.
Subtribes: Rota Boys drive cars with rotary engines that make a distinctive thumping sound, such as Mazda RX7s. Rotary Hos are the girls who ride with them.
SKATERS/PUNKS
Look: Ultra-baggy t-shirts and pants worn as low as possible. They like to ride skateboards or BMXs.
Music: Punk, pop-punk, nu-metal rock and hip-hop. Examples are Good Charlotte and Linkin Park.
Scene: Skaters do their stuff in skate parks and public spaces (the bane of city councils the world over). The skater personality modelled by professional skateboarders was traditionally egotistical, hostile and rebellious. Today's skaters are friendlier but retain a disrespect for authority.
Subtribes: There are no distinct subtribes - skating unifies people.
GEEKS
Look: Anything from T-shirt and jeans, to emo, goth or retro.
Music: Anything from hardcore dance, to death metal and classical.
Scene: In this bebo-Myspace-Facebook age, where the coolness of your profile can clinch your kudos, web-Geeks have inherited the Earth.
No longer the acne-riddled, social embarrassments of 80s teen flicks, today's Geeks are uber cool.
Brad Watson, a DJ for Top 40 radio station the Edge, says a recent phone poll said so.
Web-geeks, spend hours online, roaming the virtual worlds of Warcraft or Ultima Online, networking on sites such as gameplanet.co.nz and adding applications to their Facebook profile.
Some attend LAN parties, where individual computers are inter-connected to form a local area network (LAN) for interactive gaming.
Geeks may be into other creative pursuits like music. Many high-school bands are composed of geeks.
Subtribes: Casual gamers dip in and out of gaming, and may identify with any scene (the game Counter Strike is popular among gangstas, for example).
THE REST
Retro-Indiekids Wear stylised 80s outfits and dance to bands like Operator Please and New Order; Metallers keep a low profile in their teens. Long hair on boys and a predominance of black may be giveaways.
Straight Edgers Ascetics who often favour hardcore punk music, shun alcohol, drugs, and sometimes meat, caffeine and sex.
Sporty types Aka Jocks and Party Girls, include rugby boys who abstain from alcohol on Friday nights, then "go hard" on Saturday night; they usually graduate to lads and boozehags (think marathon drinking-games and Undy-500).
