WE have all done it. Drinking a pint or two of sweet cider in the belief that it is the elixir of adulthood is a rite of passage every teenager undergoes.

But what we found taking place on the streets of York is very different.

Previous generations would hide away their illicit drinking sessions. They feared what their parents - or, heaven forbid, the police - would do if they were discovered.

Today, youngsters are drinking on York's streets and in its parks in daylight. Rather than trying to conceal their activities, they are brazenly defying the law, as if challenging the rest of us to do anything about it.

In two hours on a single evening we counted 100 children gathering in gangs across the city, many of them drinking.

Their attitude to the police and community support officers was shocking. They greeted patrols with sarcasm and abuse. No wonder members of the public are afraid to challenge these youths.

This cannot go on. The children themselves are drinking away their childhood and are in danger of becoming teenage alcoholics.

Their communities, meanwhile, suffer from the inevitable anti-social behaviour that results, which the police are right to identify as a major concern of York residents.

We are impressed by the serious and organised effort to tackle the problem led by the police and backed by schools. Frequent offenders are put into the "Nipper" computer system: letters home and, ultimately, anti-social behaviour orders, will demonstrate they are not beyond the law.

We would also like to see the real culprits forced to face up to their irresponsibility. Parents of persistent truants can now be jailed; what sanctions can we bring against parents who allow their children to become drunks?

Updated: 11:10 Monday, July 05, 2004