For teens, it's curfew time ... at the mall

Shopping centers ban unsupervised teens on Friday and Saturday nights to curb violence. Kids say: Hey, where will we hang out?

from the June 6, 2007 edition

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St. Louis - It's 3 p.m. Time for the evening lockdown. A dozen security guards, several police officers, and the local sheriff line the nondescript hallways. They each stake out an entrance, making escape from their wary gaze nearly impossible. Those not watching the exits are wandering the corridors, searching for suspicious-looking characters.

One security guard heads towards a particularly dangerous-looking suspect: a 16-year-old girl dressed to kill. The guard gruffly instructs the young woman, Liz, to turn around and head back the way she came. But Liz isn't trying to escape, nor is she a troublemaker. "I just need to get a shirt for my dad's birthday," she explains.

Liz is not a criminal, and the guards and police are not trying to keep people in. They're trying to keep children and teens like Liz out – out of the shopping mall.

The mall is the Saint Louis Galleria, located in a wealthy, relatively safe suburb. But this scene could have been played out in more than 40 major shopping centers across the country. These citadels of capitalism have adopted what the Galleria terms a "parental guidance required" policy, where anyone under 17 must be accompanied by someone 21 or older.

Those possessing the badges of youth – carrying a backpack, or wearing baggy jeans or a micro-mini – are asked to produce an ID when entering the mall on Friday and Saturday evenings. Youngsters already shopping without an adult at the curfew hour, which at the Galleria is 3 p.m., are asked to leave by mall security.

The policy has stirred up emotion and controversy among teens, parents, and others and raises age-old questions: How do you create a safe shopping environment without singling out one group – in this case, teens? Will a curfew really bring more civility to the aisles of Ann Taylor and Aéropostale? And, most important, what will happen to the mall as mecca for millions of teen pilgrims who journey there by foot, bus, and minivan to socialize and to participate in America's obsession and economic lifeline – shopping?

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