Do you think that parents should be punished if their five-year-old child commits a crime? From what age should children be held responsible for their own behaviours?

Parents' intervention can heavily influence a

child

's personality and

behaviour

development. It is an interesting subject of discussion whether parents should be liable for their five-year-old

child

's l

awoffending

offending against or breaking a law or rule

offending

behaviour

or even subject to punishment. In my viewpoint, parents must be held responsible. Unlike adults, children break the law in the absence of either incentive or motive. Their acts are accidental and intuitive, signalling the accumulative effect of the environment where they grow up. Children informative years are particularly susceptible to whom they meet and what they see in their daily lives.

For example

, their violent acts are very likely to reflect a mixed effect of their repeated exposure to violence. Parents should

therefore

act as gatekeepers to prevent their children from watching TV and playing video games, thereby negating the influence of media. Once a

child

uses violence, it reveals that his or her parents h

ave habitually failed

Suggestion

habitually fail

habitually failed

to fulfil those duties. For

this

reason, parents should be accountable for their

child

's wrongdoing. Another example to show parents' effect on their

child

's

behaviour

is that many parents fail to set a positive role model. More often than not, parents have their own

behaviour

problems (

such

as using violence in the face of their children). As children have a natural ability to imitate others, their violent or unlawful

behaviour

is potentially a replica of their parents'. That's why children with fine upbringing normally show their courtesy and professional etiquettes in coping with real-life problems,

such

as conflicts with others, while those children with poor upbringing are more likely to act violently. People are

thus

not surprised to see that many young delinquents had unhappy lives and felt discontented with their life circumstances in which they grew up. In general, 18 is the age when an individual starts to be legally responsible for his or her acts.

This

is an age from which a

child

is ready to explore life him-or-herself and assumes life responsibilities. For the most part they are allowed to vote, drive, drink and smoke. They have sufficient experience, knowledge and competence f

or

Suggestion

in

decision making and reaching moral conclusions. In conclusion, parents should be subject to punishment when their children violate the law, in view of their tremendous influence on their

child

's

behaviour

. It is their inescapable responsibility until their

child

comes of age.