Restrictions on Teenagers

* As the father of two 10- and 13-year-old boys I am concerned about the increasing curfews being placed on teenagers. I grew up in England and have long said that Europeans enjoy more freedom than Americans. Mike Males’ article (Opinion, June 11) on teenage curfews confirmed my suspicions about the lack of effectiveness of all the restrictions being placed on young people.

My 17-year-old niece in England drives a car by herself, has a 26-year-old boyfriend and works in a pub as a part-time barmaid--all “illegal” activities in this country. She is doing well in school and is quite mature.

Let’s lower the drinking age and remove the increasing number of teenage restrictions and begin treating teenagers as young adults, not as children. Let’s teach them to respect sensible laws, such as no drinking and driving, and to respect other people’s property, instead of delaying their ability to grow up into mature adults.

Interestingly my brother says the U.K. government is also trying to introduce more restrictions on teenagers.

JOHN RETTIE

Santa Barbara

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Focusing on punishment, Males once again shines light on the U.S. public policy of neglect, denial and punishment of America’s young without wealthy parents. It is interesting that the developed nations with the grossest maldistribution of wealth and power, the U.S. and countries of the former Soviet Union, also have by far the largest per capita prison populations.

Concerning violence, crime and other social dysfunctions of teens, the contrast of the cost effectiveness of the caring approach of most other developed nations and the punitive approach of the U.S. deserves much more attention from our corporate-dominated politicians and mass media than it gets.

NICHOLAS V. SEIDITA

Northridge