THAILAND: Parents have been warned they'll go to jail for up to six months if their children are caught street racing.

Justice Minister Sompong Amornwiwat worries youth problems are on the rise and getting more serious and complicated.

Police are keeping a close watch on motorcycle shops which they suspect are behind illegal street racing.

Sompong told a seminar yesterday youth problems are not limited to street racing but include crime, drug abuse, assault and sexual assaults.

He wants parents and others to help prevent these and says the justice system should be a last resort.

"Parents must cooperate. They buy the motorcycles and allow their children out at night without question.

Girls as prizes

"Girls riding pillion passenger find themselves as race prizes and are often gang raped," he says.

Sompong warns parents will go to jail if they sanction illegal racing. He says parents should steer their children clear of "materialism", which leads some to "sell their bodies" or steal to get money to buy brand-name products.

Metropolitan Police commander Maj-General Amnuay Nimmano urges families to act as role models for children and not to let them out at night.

Street racing leads to other crime, he says.

He suspects motorcycle-modification shops to be behind street racing.