There was some encouraging news about mino motos today on the BBC website and on our local BBC TV news – the police are cracking down on their illegal and anti-social use, and the government are giving them some support.

Last month’s Broadfield neighbourhood forum was a reminder, not that one was really needed, of just how much grief these machines can cause. Even those few who are not feeling threatened or driven to distraction by the noise are worried about dangers to the riders, so there obviously is a need for something to be done.

I’m a little concerned, however, that the measures being proposed need a little more thought. One suggestion is that children riding illegally could have points deducted from their driving licence when they eventually get one, or that insurance companies will charge prohibitive premiums for adults who were caught riding a mini moto when they were at primary school.

It is a fairly common opinion that these measures will not work because ‘that sort of person’ is more than likely to drive without a licence or insurance anyway when they grow up. Despite the appalling snobbery which such comments fail to hide, I have to agree with the conclusion if not the reasons.

I was a boy many years ago, and I’m sure that if I had a chance to ride a toy motorbike then I would have jumped at the chance, along with 99% of other boys. A possible future impact on insurance or driving licence would have meant nothing to a 10-year-old, especially when you consider that they would consider the effect to be so far in the future as to be irrelevant.

But children don’t have the means to buy mini motos. They would not even be able to buy petrol for one legally. The only way they can get one is if a parent buys it. Having bought a mini moto the parent has the choice of taking bike and child to a safe, supervised track or letting them go out on their own to do whatever they like. One choice takes a lot of time and effort and some expense; the other choice is easy and has no come-back at all. Where is the incentive (apart from the child’s safety which seems to count for nothing) in doing the right thing?

Children, on the other hand, have virtually no choice. If the bike exists and the parent lets them use it they are not going to be able to resist that temptation. They are attracted to loud, shiny, fast toys like a moth to a flame and no amount of vague punishments set in the distant future is going to change that.

So where would a deterrent be most effective? If any fine, penalty, points deduction or ASBO was directed at the parents it might work a bit better.

Another much-publicised suggestion is to crush the bikes. A bit extreme, but unarguably effective. A child cannot ride a crushed bike and even the most accommodating parent will get tired of buying a new one overy few weeks.

I get annoyed by the noise mini motos and off-road bikes ridden by children around here, and I really worry that I could run one over while reversing out of the drive, so even a part solution like the ones proposed will be welcome, but it still seems like there is too much stick and not enough carrot involved in all this.

In some areas youth workers have established clubs for youngsters with motorbikes and mini motorbikes. At these clubs the children learn about bikes and get to play with them with some sort of supervision and some safety precautions, but its all done in such a way that its still cool. The youth workers end up with a club which the bike-riders want to belong to. The only catch is that if any of them get in trouble for riding the bike where they shouldn’t (or using it to power a roundabout in a kiddie’s playground) the police tell the youth club and they are barred.

Its a subtle difference between just taking something away after bad behaviour and giving something but making it conditional on good behaviour and I am told that it works. I have to keep telling myself that children are not intrinsically bad, they are just as bad as they are allowed to be. Whoever allowed them to be bad is the real villain. So I am not against the police getting some support, but lets have some support for parents as well, even if it is only in the form of incentives to exert some positive influence.

(Actually blaming the parents is an easy way out, another Daily Mail-type reflex response, but I’m not going to go into the whole business about inequalities in society right now. I’ll save that for another day.)

A lot of people, in their frustration and anger, would be happy to just see mini motos banned completely, to make it illegal to import them or sell them, and would see any form of regulation or setting up of safe facilities as somehow ‘giving in’. Last night Clive James said something interesting on TV (as mentioned already by Brian) He said something about how we must expect to find a lot of things we dislike if we live in a free society. An off-the-cuff comment, but with implications you could write a book about.

Personally I do not like mini motos, they came along 30 years too late for me to appreciate them, but is that reason to eradicate them entirely? If you start to interpret a free society as one where anyone is only free to do what you approve of or like yourself then it is not a free society you are promoting but something entirely different.

So lets have the punitive measures as a backup, but how about some positive measures as well, and save the stick for when the carrot doesn’t work? If some way can be found for children of all ages to enjoy these toys in a way that does not threaten, endanger or intimidate the rest of the population it would be the best solution.