Wildwood, NJ Considering Even Earlier Curfew for Underage Teens

It's summer at the Jersey Shore, but it could be going better for Wildwood. The shore town is considering rolling back its curfew for teens even earlier after a recent string of thefts.

Ocean City, Sea Isle City, and Avalon have seen a ramp up in rowdy teen behavior over the last few summers. Groups of tweens and teens have been known to form in large groups and loiter on the beaches and boardwalks after dark. The combat the gatherings, all three of those shore towns have curfews in place.

Wildwood does, too, but it may not be early enough, especially in the wake of Fourth of July Weekend there where 60 rowdy teens reportedly hung out on the beach and boardwalk drinking and playing loud music until nearly sunrise.

Currently, the curfew for teens under the age of 18 to be off the boardwalk is 1 a.m.

A souvenir shop on the Wildwood boardwalk has reportedly experienced recent thefts and vandalism by rowdy juveniles after 11 p.m., according to 6abc.com.

Wildwood will vote Wednesday night to move the curfew to 12 a.m. for the remainder of the summer, and if it passes, the revision will take effect immediately.

Not everyone is on board with an earlier curfew, though. Some Wildwood boardwalk businesses, like, Mamba Mentality say they get a lot of business from teens after 11 p.m. when they're still looking for something to do.

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But the current curfew doesn't appear to be much of a deterrent to teens. Will one hour make much of a difference? Should Wildwood's (and other shore towns) curfew be even earlier than midnight?