AMANDA Duffy (11), from Rathnew, Co Wicklow, was disgusted to find herself in a workshop with a newspaper reporter at the ISPCC National Children's Forum entitled "Look Who's Talking" in the RDS.
"I don't want to do the newspaper thing", she told the supervisor.
"Sometimes we all have to do things we don't like doing," the supervisor replied.
Amanda just went to another group.
Her sister, Rachel (12), however, was very happy to co operate with the media. But she was not very impressed with the heading asking what young people should do if they ran the government.
"If children were running the government they should just resign. Children could make a lot of mistakes. Adults would do a better job. There are people here saying that children should have no homework. That's just thick. Children need their education. Then when they're adults they could run the government."
It was the same for peace in Ireland. "Who's going to listen to children? It's adults really who decide."
She does have a message for the present Government. "Something should be done about cutting down trees. There are millions of people in the world and they all need air and trees give us oxygen."
She thinks adults should listen more to children. "Some adults worry too much and care about you too much. But they're worried there are weird people going around who might kidnap you."
Was she not worried about such things? "When I see things like that on telly it scares me a bit when it's near Wicklow."
Other young people were also sometimes frightened by what they hear and see in the media especially television. Pamela Lawlor (13), from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, "heard the world is going to blow up in the year 2000. That freaked me out".
Like her friends, she does not watch the news much. They do watch programmes like Home and Away but do not think it realistic. "They don't drink or smoke or curse or anything," said Eimear Ryan, also from Clonmel.
The Clonmel group all came from the STEPS drop in centre, organised by the ISPCC in the town. "If you have any problems they help you," said Jessica Fitzgerald (13). "You can talk to people there about problems and they give you advice."
It was mainly girls who went to STEPS, she said. Pamela added: "The boys who go there are thick. There are no 13 or 14 year olds, only younger ones.
This was confirmed by Jenny, a volunteer who works with STEPS in Wexford. "The girls are more open," she said. She explained that children from about eight to 15 or 16 years dropped in, made tea, and chatted. Trained counsellors were on hand to discuss any problems.
Many of the children and youths at the forum came from STEPS groups and were enthusiastic about them. Children needed someone to talk to, according to Rachel Duffy. "A friend of mine was worried about her parents splitting up so we were about it and saying what we do. They didn't split up in the end, though."
Rachel has just primary school. Her friends, Giltrap and Olive Kavanagh, from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, are in secondary school, where there is a counsellor. "He's very nice, you can talk to him", said Melisa.
The forum was not all about talk. Among the 600 children, mostly girls, in the RDS, there were groups painting, posters and banners, dancing trying out computers.
It could not be said that a consensus emerged on children's concerns but all agreed with Jenny it was a great day out.