Of course teenagers want to be pop idols like Liam Payne. Given the perils, should we let them?

Liam Payne's audition on The X Factor, on which he first appeared age 14. Photograph: ITV

Sex, drinking, smoking, gambling, joining the army, being put to work – we now take it as obvious that there should be strict laws protecting young people from certain parts of the adult world.

Of course there should. Young brains are soft, excitable and easily addled. There are many things they should be sheltered from, and some choices that should not be theirs to make.