Theres a whole pile of factors as to why the young 'uns aren't taking it up nowadays.. Theres no one single right or wrong answer and no simple solution to solve the problem...
People have a lot of (incorrect) pre-conceieved ideas about what caving is like, and how bananas you have to be to consider such a crazy pastime.
Mention caving to some people and they look at you as if youve just told them you are planning on spending Saturday afternoon tap dancing naked on the customer services desk in Sainsburys.. "you're doing WHAT?!"
So we need to CHANGE societys perception of caving.
Some teenagers/ young people probably wont have had any experience of caving, i know when i was a kid, i went with Bewerley Park Camp, and that was my first taste of it, but without that, i wouldnt have known anything about it (had hubby not been into it)
Perhaps caving could make a come back with a bit of POSITIVE marketing.
Something needs to be done to counter the medias wonderful "you cant go caving without ending up calling cave rescue" attitude
There must be hundreds of bored young people who would LOVE to go caving, but have never really understood what there is to be gained from caving? Those who's parents are into it are gonna know all about it, but what about the hundreds who havent got caving parents? (poor souls!) So the only way to get em caving is to tell em about it!!
University students are at a great advantage, Freshers fair's are fab for getting great ideas for doing new stuff, perhaps there should be something similar to encourage teenagers and young people who dont go to uni to do stuff other than play with their PS2's?