IN the modern jargon, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's role is to "think outside the box".

Unfettered by the politician's desire to please, it can look at social problems afresh and put forward radical, sometimes provocative, ideas.

Its latest suggestion is one of the most provocative yet. Underage drinkers should be offered shelter and adult supervision, say the authors of a foundation report.

They argue this would stop drunken teenagers getting hurt. Food for thought, certainly. But the solution is misguided.

Also tonight, we report the serious concern of York's licensing bench about underage drinking in the city. It has always happened, of course.

But today's youngsters have more money and greater access to alcohol. Once parents would have reacted with fury to their child coming home drunk, now they too often turn a blind eye.

This has led to a culture in which 15-year-old alcoholics are in court. Is the answer to offer them their own, official drinking den?

Neither the police nor the Alcohol Advice service think so.

To supervise our children as they sink into an alcoholic haze would be an abdication of our responsibility as adults.

It would send out the message that underage drinking is tolerated, even state-sanctioned. The answer lies in the other direction: redoubling our efforts to crack down on young drinkers and their suppliers.

Parents and children must be in no doubt that underage drinking is dangerous, wrong and illegal - and will not be tolerated.

Updated: 11:36 Thursday, February 03, 2005