Anna Allan等孩子将警方和理事会所谓的“儿童安全倡议”视为禁令。Anna生于上世纪九十年代，在苏格兰一个名叫哈密尔顿的小镇生活，她和朋友们9点前必须回家，过了九点就会有警车把他们送回家。她说道，“我觉得我们像是受到了迫害，我才13岁，但这样会让我觉得自己好像犯了什么错似的。”

科尼什镇的年轻人也会有同感，因为那里也颁布了宵禁条例，该条例规定16岁以下的青年如在晚9点后外出，警察和政府官员有权加以阻拦。

许多家长都赞同代号为“晚安行动”的计划，如果他们的孩子出现上述问题，则会有警察负责将孩子安全送回家；而那些未签署同意书的家庭，一旦发现他们的孩子很晚外出，那么他们的家长以及法定监护人将会受到惩罚。

与此同时，英国民政厅要求试行该项计划的城镇员随时汇报该计划的进展状况。如取得成效，其他城市也将效仿此举。据悉，此项提议将在暑期实施并获得了多数家庭的赞同。然而，也有儿童维权专家提出宵禁条例会让孩子们关系疏远，同时也会拉大孩子与大人间的代沟。

The police and council preferred to call it a "child safety initiative", but youngsters like Anna Allan knew it simply as a curfew. Growing up in the Scottish town of Hamilton in the late 1990s, Anna and her friends had to be indoors by 9pm or risk being ordered into the back of a police car and delivered home. Hanging out with friends as dusk fell in the summer was in effect banned. "We felt as if we were being persecuted," she said. "I was 13 and made to feel like I was a criminal."

Later this month young people in a Cornish town may feel the same. A unique curfew scheme is being launched under which all youngsters aged under 16 out after 9pm will be stopped by police and council officials, some equipped with headcams to collect evidence.

The children of parents who sign up to the scheme, codenamed Operation Goodnight, can be taken home. And if they do not sign up but their children are caught out late, families will face action from social services and housing authorities.

The Home Office has asked officials in Redruth to keep it informed about the scheme and if it is successful, other towns may set up their own curfews.

Many householders in Redruth, where the scheme will run during the summer holidays, welcome the initiative, but children's rights experts warn curfews will alienate youngsters and create a worrying gap between children and the adults who ought to take responsibility for them.

Stuart Waiton, the director of the campaign group Youth Generation Issues, has studied the Hamilton curfew. He said such schemes were always billed as helping parents, but actually helped undermine their authority. "Parents, not the state, should decide at what time children come in."

The Hamilton scheme petered out. But since 2001, councils and police have been entitled to apply to the home secretary to set up curfew zones. None has done so. Police forces have instead introduced "dispersal zones" under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003. This allows groups of two or more to be moved on. More than 1,000 zones were set up between 2004 and 2006. But studies suggest the zones often simply displace the problem. In Leeds, one area that bordered a dispersal zone saw crime rise by 148%.

Residents are also often disappointed when the zones, which can run for a maximum of six months at a time, are wound up. This is what happened in Redruth. Police did not want to go through the "weighty" process of applying to the home secretary for an official curfew zone, so launched their "voluntary" scheme.

Angela Gunn, who has a 12-year-old son, said: "I don't mind if I send my lad to the shops to get a pint of milk and he gets stopped. We do have problems with anti-social behaviour and anything that helps has to be a good thing."