> Up to 80 malls across the United States enforce a curfew or escort policy for teenagers

If you follow the link, the more accurate quote is [1]

> Close to 80 malls in the U.S. have some type of curfew or escort policy regarding teenagers

Having a policy is different from enforcing it, and a curfew policy is quite different from an escort policy, so who knows what this really means?

Time writes, citing Credit Suisse, that there are about 1100 malls in the US today [2], so this might still be fairly rare.

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/teens-are-getting-banned-from-mal... [2] http://time.com/4865957/death-and-life-shopping-mall/

Your story reminded me of when I went on a cruise for my honeymoon. There was a cruise employee who gave my new husband and me a stern warning about how we should not be on the cruise without our parents if we were under 18. (We were in our mid-20s.) So much of society today wants to keep people dependent on their parents forever, it seems.

I think it's more the case that roving gangs of teenagers put adults on edge. And for good reason. When you put 5 or 10 of the most conscientious teenagers together, collectively they're like a bull in a china shop.

Adults aren't much better, but they're much less energetic unless they've been drinking.

I learned to hate malls in the same way.