Heather du Plessis-Allan: Kids shouldn't be exempt from citizen's arrests

The Mike Hosking Breakfast

If you listen to parenting experts, you'll hear the same thing time and time again about raising kids properly.

They need love, but just as importantly, they need boundaries.

They need to be told no, they need to be disciplined, and they need to learn what they can and can't do.

And if you don't do that, you basically ruin their chances at success.

Now, bear that in mind when you hear people like the Children's Commissioner arguing that kids should be off limit on citizen's arrests.

At the moment the Government is proposing a law change to allow retailers, or security guards, or you and I, to hold a shoplifter until the cops can get there and take over.

The Children's Commissioner is well-meaning because she just doesn't want kids hurt.

These things can go badly, especially if you've got the worst case playing out like we've seen, which when you've got weapons involved with kids turning up with hammers and knives and so on to raid a store.

But while she means well, she is wrong.

Because a loophole like that will be exploited by adults.

Gangs already use kids to commit their ram raids and their thefts because they know that kids get off more lightly than they would.

If you make a rule that kids are allowed to escape but adults get held down, you only make it more likely that they send the kids in, thereby making it more likely that kids end up ruining their life.

Which brings us back to the very start - kids need boundaries.

Not just from parents. But also from the state.

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