You could take their mobile phone away.

While parents struggle to ensure that their teenage children stay on the straight on narrow, it seems that confiscating their mobile phone is the one thing that seemingly works best.

This finding came from recent research that focused on 11 to 18 year olds. It seems the one thing one in six teenagers hated most was having their mobile gadget taken off them if they misbehave. This figure apparently rose to around 80% if they owned a smartphone or BlackBerry.

Interestingly, with many younger people having much more money in their pockets these days, a tenth of them admitted buying a new gadget without telling their parents.

What else do parents confiscate? It seems while the mobile phone is probably the easiest device to take off a child, many parents also confiscate teenagers’ games consoles, MP3 players and laptop computers. Except for the MP3 player, the other items are more difficult to take off children simply because they need to be dismantled. However, if required to, the parents asked in the survey will take action.

This research, which questioned over 4,000 parents and teenagers, also found that confiscating digital products is a shift in behaviour in parenting. Traditionally, parents prevented their children going out the house or sent them to their room if they misbehaved. Two thirds of parents said the former was the likeliest punishment. Not receiving any pocket money came third.

More than 90% of teenagers are now said to own a mobile phone and consider it the most important possession they own.