The Space Scouts is a youth organization in which Arnold Rimmer and Porky Roebuck were once members. It may be the youth wing of the Space Corps. Yakka Takka Tulla was the Space Mistress when Rimmer attended.
One exercise was to send scouts out into the wilderness and let them live only on what they caught or built themselves. Rimmer's team all decided to eat him, and despite Rimmer's assurance that his best friend Porky would save him, he was in fact the ringleader. This experience, as well as many other unpleasant childhood experiences, led Rimmer not to trust anybody. Their salute involved moving their index fingers around the sides of their heads while making high pitched noises ("Stasis Leak").
Howard Rimmer was also in the Space Scouts, and tormented his younger brother, one time "painting [his] todge with orange glow paint" and so allowing him to read Biggles Flies West under the bed sheets for three whole nights without needing a torch. ("Trojan").