When I was a kid in the 1980's and early 90's the mall was the place to go and hang out. Go to the food court, arcade, shoe stores, Spencer's gifts.

Google "malls that ban teenagers" and you will find a lot of articles. I have been to a few places that have signs "Anyone under 18 must be chaperoned by an adult."

>When I was a kid in the 1980's and early 90's the mall was the place to go and hang out. Go to the food court, arcade, shoe stores, Spencer's gifts.

It's so wild looking back at those times. My friends and I would take the bus to the mall, which took (what felt like) forever. And we'd hang out there, browse stores, etc. for HOURS. Even though none of us had any money to spend. Sometimes we'd get a fountain soda at the food court for $.50. it's amazing we'd spend so much time at stores when we had no money.

Maybe there's some rare incident, maybe they're just annoyed the teens don't spend enough per hour. It doesn't really matter. Teens aren't some special danger, and it's bad when places want to give off the impression of being a nice public place but fail to be one in significant ways.

It doesn’t matter to a non stakeholder like you. For the business owners, it clearly matters.

What they think has very little relevance to the problem of teens having nowhere to go.

And in general the US has been really lacking in third places.

The late 80's and early 90's was peak mayhem but kids still hung out unsupervised at the mall.

Sure. But the end result is still teenagers losing a place to go.

its usually from shoplifting

Malls, movie theaters, arcades all require a parental escort. Not to mention the general problem society has with free-range kids.

So I am empathetic when the kids want Minecraft to be that space since society doesn't give it to them.

>Malls, movie theaters, arcades all require a parental escort

I don’t know where you are, but that sounds like a horrible place to raise kids. I’m in a California suburb, and my teenage kids go to the local malls and theaters wi their us all the time - it’s great for their independence and social life.

There lucky if they even exist. Where I grew up the local malls and hangouts that were within <30 minute drive had all died _and_ society had already moved into the “unattended minors are a threat to society” model

I tried walking 2-3 miles to school or to a friends and got picked up by the police and brought home, so I stopped going outside and became a homebody nerd. I’m not really surprised it got worse decades later with better entertainment on machines and even worse busybodies outside