kvakhrusheva

Since March 2009 youngters under 17 are not allowed to be outside their homes without parents or other responsible adults after 11pm. This curfew was intoduced as a law in St.Petersburg and many other regions in Russia.

Its goal as it was explained by authorities is to protect youngsters from offence, drinking and drugs. So now if police see youngsters on the streets after 11pm they will take them to a police office and impose a fine to parents.
In reality this restrition is one more opportunity for policemen for bribery. Everyone knows that lots of youngsters are attending different sport and art clubs, getting additional education in evenings and for most of them there is no opportunity to be accompanied by parents. I remember myself at the age of 14-16 coming back from fencing club after 11pm. Furtheron according to another law teenagers after 14 are getting their first passport and are responsible for their behaviour. So as a result of the new law youngsters will contine being outside after 11pm trying to escape both from criminals and policemen and policemen will search for youngsters to get money either from their parents or from youngsters directly because noone want to be delivered to the police office which is almost equal to jail now.

Yes, there are a lot of crimes with youngsters but the problem should be solved not by restrictions for normal people which limits their freedom. Policemen should learn how to catch criminals and not youngsters who are coming home late from football or english lessons.