The violence in the early hours of New Year's Day on Front Street has caused considerable concern within the community, and rightly so.

The reactions to the violence, and similar incidents involving young people in recent months, have been fairly predictable.

Law and order proponents have called for curfews and harsher penalties to be exacted on people in their teens who breach the law or cause a disturbance.

That's not the answer, say liberal activists, who call for mediation and the need to look at the causes of what makes young people violent.

And there will be some who will say these incidents are simply examples of youthful high jinks taken too far.

All are correct to some extent, and all are wrong as well.

The risk with curfews and harsher penalties comes when the innocent get caught up with the guilty. The vast majority of young people in Bermuda are responsible and law-abiding. Blanket crackdowns will simply turn the innocent into offenders and will give them cause for resentment against authority and the powers that be.

Mediation and other well meaning measures may help in some cases, but will do little or nothing to rehabilitate those who are determined to cause trouble.

And these incidents may well be examples of "youthful exuberance". But that does not make them right or acceptable.

One other element which has been mentioned but deserves more attention is the role of parents.

When 14-year-olds or 15-year-olds are out on the streets at 2.30 a.m. in the morning, it is fair to ask where their parents were and what they were doing letting them run wild at a time when they should have been at home and in bed.

And if the parents knew where they were, then they are doubly culpable.

There have been calls for parental responsibility laws in the community both for incidents like this and to make sure that children are in school and so on.

It is high time that parents are held responsible for their children's actions. Requiring parents and children to attend behaviourial mediation classes, or fining parents in court for their children's actions, would go a long way to ensuring that children know right from wrong and when their behaviour is unacceptable.

In the event that parents cannot control their children, then the courts need to step in. But the first step is to bring order to the home.

The second step is to ensure that children are busy and engaged in constructive activities. Teenagers will claim that they commit these kinds of acts out of boredom and will excuse drinking or using illegal drugs for the same reason.

The truth is that there are plenty of activities for young people in Bermuda. The trick is to make sure that children are involved in them and feel they are getting something out of them.

If children can't be bothered to get involved themselves, then it's up to the parents to involve them.