Two malls in the metro Detroit area are the latest to enforce such a policy. At the Fairlane Town Center and Eastland Mall, kids under the age of 17 are prohibited from being in the mall past 5 p.m. unless they are with an adult over 21. Security guards check teens' IDs at the entrances and patrol courtyards and corridors for lone youths.
Mall managers say the curfews are necessary to rein in unruly teens, but some kids say adults are too hung up on kids' hanging out.
Packs of Wild Teens!
Fairlane security director Arnold Wicker said the mall had no choice but to enact a curfew. On any given weekend night, as many as 2,600 teenagers converged at the mall. Most of the teens, Wicker said, weren't there shopping; they were interfering with business. Customers complained they felt uncomfortable shopping among so many teens.
Crowds of kids kept shopper Krysten Wrobel, 20, of Westland, Mich., far from Fairlane Town Center on weekend nights. "I just want to come here ... and not walk through a group of 15 kids," she told reporters while shopping one post-curfew Friday evening.
Eastland Mall's marketing manager Denise DeSantis says keeping kids out of trouble isn't the mall's responsibility. "We are not a day-care center.... We are a retailer," she said.
Malls for All!
Many kids clamor that mall curfews unfairly punish all kids for the misdeeds of a few. "We just want to be able to hang out at the mall. But because a few teens cause problems, we all get the blame," complained Kimberly Flanagan, 16, of Charlotte, N.C., to the Charlotte Observer about her local mall's curfew.
The American Civil Liberties Union concurs with kids' complaints. "We're opposed to curfews that treat all minors as if they're criminals," said Kary Moss, an attorney with the legal group.
Most kids say the mall is the best place for kids to hang out. "Without an organized place, many teens will resort to the streets and ... pranks for fun," wrote teenager Leah Bush in a letter to the Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y., about a curfew policy there.
Besides, kids say, curfews are bad for business. "Where are they going to find a 45-year-old who wants to buy all of B2K's CDs?" wondered Jasmine Myers, 13, in a letter to the Detroit Free Press.
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Get Talking
Ask students: Why are malls popular hangouts for teens? Why might some malls be enforcing escort and curfew policies for teens?
Background
* According to the market research group Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), 68 percent of teens ages 12-19 spend time at the mall in any given week. On average, teens spend 3.5 hours at the mall each week. TRU also reports that teens spent about $175 billion in 2003. The average teen spent about $103 per week.
* In 1996, The Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minn., was the one of the first malls to enact a teen escort policy. The mall, the largest in the country, requires teens 15 or younger to be accompanied by a parent or guardian 21 years or older after 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. One adult can escort up to 10 kids. A 30-member team of paid parents called "Mighty Moms" and "Dedicated Dads" enforce the policy.
* According to The Detroit News, sales at Eastland Mall have gone up 29 percent since the teen curfew went into effect on June 1.
* First Amendment guarantees, such as freedom of speech and the right to peacefully assemble, generally apply only to public property, not to private property, such as shopping malls. However, lawmakers in many states believe that malls now occupy the spaces where downtown and town centers used to be and should therefore be considered quasi-public spaces.
Doing More
Ask students: What are some other ways that malls could handle teenager behavior problems?
Words in the News
* ACLU (page 3)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a private organization that defends Americans' rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Representing both individuals and groups, the ACLU advocates civil rights and freedoms such as freedom of speech, the right to assemble, and protection against unreasonable searches. The nearly 400,000 member organization has argued or supported every major U.S. civil liberties case since it was founded in 1920.
