MISBEHAVING youths are probably the biggest source of worry to many law-abiding residents. It's not just the fact that their behaviour is loud, their language shocking, the likelihood of them committing petty acts of nuisance and vandalism high; it's also the fact that they are pretty intimidating.

Young, strong and numerous, they are physically intimidating. Complaining of nothing to do, they shun organised activities and channel their energies into chanting, drinking, swearing and worse.

That, of course, is a minority, probably a small minority, of today's youth but they do exist and they are certainly a cause of considerable fear, upset and distress for many people, particularly elderly.

So concerned is the Government that it is taking robust action with its pursuit of wide-ranging anti-social behaviour orders, commonly known as ASBOs. They are intended to give courts, councils and police, acting in tandem, draconian powers to define types of behaviour which, if conducted by the subject of an ASBO, is a criminal offence.

This week, at the Labour Party conference, the Home Secretary outlined plans to give we, the media, increased powers to "name and shame" these youths. And quite right too, we believe. Youths responsible for awful, loutish behaviour have been allowed to remain hidden behind a veil of anonymity, on the grounds that exposure to public scrutiny at their tender age might damage their future.

But giving newspapers, radio and television the right to blast their name and pictures to the community sits awkwardly with existing laws. For example, if little Johnny conducts a campaign of yobbish behaviour, ringing old age pensioners' doorbells, shouting foul language at them and trampling the plants in their garden then he's likely to be dragged in front of the court, subjected to an ASBO and have his name plastered all over this paper.

But if little Johnny breaks into the house, stabs the pensioner and robs her of her life savings, hell will freeze over before the courts allow the paper to publish his name.

And it will not be long before some lawyer seizes upon this anomaly and the whole of the Government's strategy for tackling anti-social behaviour among youths comes under the sharp focus of its beloved Human Rights Act.

Even horrible little specimens like Johnny have their human rights.