Police in a Cornish town have kicked off about children for being out on the streets at 4am - and now parents have ticked them off too. Callington Police put a message out on its Facebook page warning parents in the town that they spotted youngsters out and about in the early hours.

In their message they ask parents to make sure their children's device-tracking apps such as FindMyPhone re up to date and activated so they know what their children are up to. In their post they wrote: "We have been reviewing lots of footage recently and have been shocked to see the number of young people out in the early hours of the morning, some as early/late as 4am.

"We are aware that sometimes children may lie about where they are and this why there are location monitoring apps and settings available on most electronic devices, to safeguard children. It may be worth checking to see if your child’s device is up to date and downloading necessary safeguarding apps."

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Some parents have seen the funny side saying lying to your parents is almost a rite of passage for any teen. Others are on the side of the police saying no children should be out on the streets that late while others have turned on the police themselves saying that perhaps if there was a bigger police presence in the town, such incidents would not happen.

Replying below the police's post, Dawn Henderson-Manns said: "If you haven’t told your parents your staying at each other’s houses and got drunk and slept down the football field, then did you even have a childhood?"

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Michelle Louise agreed the tracking apps only work as long as they are turned on. She said: "It's OK having these apps as long as your children don't turn them off. I got up to use the bathroom at 3am to find out my 12 year old and her friend had snuck out the house and turned her 360 app off. Needless to say I went crazy and she lost her freedom and her phone for a long time. I couldn't believe it. Fuming."

Holly Ware thought more bobbies on the beat might do the trick. She said: "Maybe a solid police presence around the town at unsociable hours would also dissuade this. The kids know how to uninstall apps but you can't uninstall a police presence."

However Callington police responded: "Response officers patrol Callington during the night when we aren’t in. It is also down to parents to know the whereabouts of their own children. We cannot police everything."

Emma Smart shared: "Lots off young ones going past mine around that time in the morning as well." Heather Knight: "The solution is better parenting."

Kelly Milz backed the cops, writing with more than a hit of sarcasm: "Let's leave our kids to run feral and leave the police to deal with them. Some parents are delusional. Mine don't really go out because we are full of activities after school and weekends. If mine were running Callington causing havoc they would have consequences, let alone at night."

Mary Parren: "Teenagers on mopeds, without silencers, they are causing a nuisance with noise. Late at night, again they are here now, they were riding around at 3am Friday/Saturday early hours, totally ridiculous when people are trying to sleep."

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