Dutch police call on parents to check kids for illegal fireworks

The Dutch police want parents to be more alert in checking their children and their children's friends for illegal fireworks, Ad Nieuwdorp, fireworks expert at the National Police, said to AD. He called parents "naive" when it comes to dangerous fireworks.

"A cobra is just a grenade and totally not comparable to the strikers and astronauts they themselves lit as a teenager" Nieuwdorp said to the newspaper. He added that a legal soft banger going off in a hand will leave a child with burns, an illegal banger wil blow the hand off.

He calls on parents to contact the police, if need be anonymously, if their kids' friends have illegal fireworks. "That does not make you a traitor. It is about the safety, Your child is at risk." he said.

A large proportion of the annual firework injuries that end up in hospital in the Netherlands are boys between te ages of 11 and 14 years who got their hands on illegal fireworks. Last year 38 of the 80 serious injuries were kids of that age.

"It does not help appealing to young people in puberty." Nieuwdorp said. It is therefore up to the parents to intervene. Be more alert in checking children for illegal fireworks. "Are they really ordering new pants or something else from the internet?"