The new face of government policy

Having been chucked out by her mum for smoking weed, Jodie winds up living in a squat and stealing to buy heroin.

Jasper is in a hospital bed recovering from a stab wound inflicted, ironically, by an illegal knife he carried as protection against the estate hard men.

Fortunately, Jodie and Jasper aren't contributing to the UK's youth crime problem. The pair are fictional characters whose cautionary tales feature on a �1.1m government website aimed at keeping real teenagers out of trouble.

The site, Rizer, is billed as sign posting the way "out of the cycle of crime" for young offenders and showing other teens "how to avoid it in the first place".

Jargon busting

Flash animation and hip-hop beats guide visitors through the criminal justice system and the consequences of breaking the law.

The jargon of law enforcement is also explained. For twocking (taking a car without the owner's consent), Mitchell ends up with a detention and training order (a custodial sentence followed by supervision) from the YOP (Youth Offender Panel).

Youth Crime 33% of boys aged 14-15 admit to committing a crime More than one in ten said they had caused criminal damage. A similar number had stolen. Almost one in twenty girls aged 12-13 confessed to shoplifting Source: Home Office

Two virtual hosts, Nina and Jed, are also on hand to walk teens through the content. The duo wear the latest trainers, rather than police officers' Doc Martens.

Jed's Nikes, the graffiti-type graphics and straight talk of the Rizer site is part of its aim to distance itself from any "discernible connection with government or other traditional forms of authority".

Rizer received positive reviews from a group of young students who were asked by BBC News Online to explore the site.

"The animations are easy to understand and they use simple words to explain the main points, which I liked because English isn't my first language," says Mao Kanno.

"The sort of people who commit crimes don't tend to read, so I think this is a good approach to talk to them."

'Too playful'

However, Trevor Smith worries that Rizer might be too "playful". "Perhaps it could have been more shocking. Parts of the site seem a bit cartoonish and the people involved in crime aren't going to like cartoons."

But he does commend Rizer for not trying to adopt teenagers' "street" slang to get the message across.

Keeping it simple

"Street changes all the time and they'd have difficulty keeping up with it. Also, word differs from place to place. Something I'd say wouldn't make any sense to a young person somewhere else."

If, indeed, Rizer has struck the right tone, will it do anything to tackle the youth crime figures? The crime reduction charity Nacro has its doubts.

"While it is no bad thing that young people are given information and advice on how the law might impact on their lives, it is perhaps unlikely that those kids at most risk of offending will benefit directly," said a spokesman.

Net users?

Home Office analysis of a 1999 lifestyles survey found, not surprisingly, that teenagers with poor attendance at school or those from poorer backgrounds were more likely to commit offences. Such individuals might therefore only enjoy limited access to the internet.

"The site might well be useful for schoolchildren taking exams in citizenship, but it is difficult to see how, in terms of preventing youth crime, this is the best allocation of resources," says Nacro.

Is a lack of information the real problem?

"Funding support programmes that aim to make a real difference to the lives of kids in trouble with the law would, for example, have much clearer and more obvious benefits."

Parental supervision, drug use and peer pressure are suggested as key factors in youth crime. It is less clear whether a lack of information about the law contributes to criminality.