I don't think that's true, is it?

I don't think it's the fact that parents are afraid to discipline their kids either, personally I think in alot of cases parents just aren't putting the time in. I mean I have an 11 year old son, he would not be allowed hang around the place with kids of that age for a start, when he does go out with his friends, he has to stay within ear shot of either me or a parent of one of his friends.

10 years old is far to young to be hanging around subways etc with kids who are clearly older.

He was already locked in the place at that point though?!

he was alleged to have stoken crisps but we dont know, for example, how long this had been going on. Looks like the employee had had enough of their petty pilfering

Hmm maybe. I know 13 is quite different, but we have recently allowed Gavs oldest to start going out with his mates on his own to the cinema and such for a few hours at a time on a weekend. He is a very very mature and well behaved child at home and it just seems the right time.

However, maybe him and his mates are going on like this too :S

Does make me wonder

Ahh I do like it when their little "the law will get you" plans fall through. At one point a colleague of mine was filming a group on them on his phone, as they were harassing people outside the shop and smashing up a bus stop.

One of them decided to start screaming into the shop; "You can't film us without permission that's illegal you paedo!"

I Googled it and had a great time informing them that you can film whoever you want so long as they're in a public place and you don't intend to make the video publicly available like showing it on TV or online.

His poor little face then. Clearly suddenly terrified that the police were going to get a video of him and his friends smashing half the town :joker:. Again though, if the police had come, nothing would have happened :shrug:. If it's kids they just don't care.

if you saw this video and it was your son Vicky would you honestly be making these excuses for his behavior?

There is no excuse for that behavior.

As a parent I think you know your own child though and what you think they'd be able for, I mean if you've not had any trouble with him causing trouble in school or at friends houses or whatever before then you probably won't now either. I think you can make a good judgement call by how his friends behave around you too

I don't think it being London matters much in this case LT. I work in a relatively small, obscure Scottish town and like I said there are a couple of groups of kids around who are like this.

Nah... These kids smashing things up and causing chaos are just "more visible". Get noticed and make news stories etc. getting people worked up and making them think that all kids are out being thugs. The truth is that the VAST majority of teenagers our with their friends are minding their own business and not bothering anyone. It's just that no one notices those kids.

I'm not making excuses for his behavior though, I am saying the shop worker was also in the wrong and shouldn't be being hailed as some kind of Jesus figure in all of this :laugh: