There was a study of Protestant abuses posted here a few months back, which IIRC documented that 75% of the reported cases were committed by laypersons/volunteers, and only 25% committed by the pastorate/clergy. IMO your "young single male" youth pastor resembles the former category rather than the latter, because he is uncommitted and unaccountable in his personal life, and is probably the lowest-paid (assuming he's paid at all) and lowest-ranking member of the church leadership team. In my own church, we've gone through at least three "youth pastors" in six years. Not exactly the same picture of stability and commitment that we get from our Senior Pastor.
A smart church will have their youth pastors be 25-40, married and with a kid or two of their own. This won’t weed out the flat out pedo-pervs, but it would cut down on the 22 year old youth pastor fresh out of bible college being tempted into “intense fellowship” with the 16 year old girls he is assigned to work with.
That's a good recommendation, and I would go even farther if possible. I don't see why the 1 Timothy 3 standards for leadership shouldn't be applied at all levels, all the way down to the youth pastor.
Absolute agreement.
Having a married couple serve as co-leaders of the youth group (or the youth pastor and a married couple) helped avoid a lot of pitfalls. We weren’t so concerned about the youth leader or pastor doing something as having a trouble teen CLAIM that something happened.