This past weekend, Mayfair Mall's newest program, Parental Guidance Required, went into effect. On Fridays and Saturdays after 2 p.m. anyone 17 or younger must be accompanied by a parent or supervising adult guardian 21 or older.

Mall officials have said that this is "to encourage families to take advantage of a pleasant shopping environment." That's nice and all, but families don't make up as big of a customer base as teenagers when you look at the mall's real estate, a large percentage of the mall are stores aimed at teens. They have money to burn and cutting off the prime shopping days is cruel and unusual punishment.

I'll admit that there are times that I get annoyed by youngsters when they seem to be taking over the mall, but then I remember all the time I spent holed up in my favorite stores after school or on the weekend. There are a few bad seeds, true, but I still don't get why a whole age group needs to be banned.

I was at the mall on Saturday, and already the program doesn't seem to be exactly working. Sure, there were security guards posted at the entrances, but what about the people in the mall? It seemed that if you got in before the 2 p.m. cut-off time, you got to stay.

Plus, I didn't see anyone being asked for their IDs or getting escorted out from inside the mall. I saw plenty of groups of teens walking around carefree. I only saw two security guards standing by the escalators with their thumbs hooked in their belt loops as I walked from the movie theater to the other side of the mall, and there was one guard as I left the mall.

As much as I hate to use an -ism, the curfew is ageism, plain and simple. It's people saying that all the troublemakers are under 18. I've seen plenty of people over the age of 21 who aren't mature enough to know how to handle the mall. So, has it come to needing a fake ID for the mall?

There are plenty of other ways to make the curfew work.

The 2 p.m. time on Friday, no matter how much the officials protest, is obviously to thwart any attempt for students to shop after school. Plus, parents are still at work. Students haven't been at the mall all day Friday, so why not make the hours that younger people can walk the mall until 7 p.m.? That gives two extra hours for families to shop in peace at the end of the night.

Or how about no one under the age of 18 at the mall on Saturday morning until 2 p.m.? That still gives teens four hours to hang out. There's also Sunday -- give families all day Sunday.

The problem I especially have with this rule has to do with the movie theater. The MPAA has its own rules and regulations when it comes to admitting people. To say that escorts are needed for the movies as well is something that I can't stand.

Most larger malls haven't had to succumb to banning younger patrons or instating a curfew. It's as if Mayfair finally ran out of ideas on controlling the crowds or the crowds just got too raucous. Either way it's a sad situation that I don't feel is completely right.