A mall in Southern California will soon require unaccompanied minors to wear identification cards after a crowd of youths started three brawls at the shopping center during last weekend’s National Cinema Day promotion.

The Moreno Valley Mall will have teens put their names and their parents’ contact information on a lanyard they must wear while inside the mall, according to Riverside County’s Press-Enterprise newspaper. 

A spokeswoman for mall owner Matt Ilbak said minors will have to wear the lanyard after 5 p.m. on weekdays or anytime on weekends if they’re not with an adult. If the kids misbehave, mall security will call their parents.

“We would like to remind you that the mall security is not a babysitting service and it is the responsibility of parents to raise their children to be respectful to others and to compose themselves accordingly when out in public,” the spokeswoman, Chelsey Ritchie, said in a statement Sunday. 

The mall didn’t indicate when the new policy would go into effect. Mr. Ilbak has a similar requirement for a mall he owns in Florida.

Ms. Ritchie said the disorder stemmed from National Cinema Day, where movie theaters across the country offered $4 tickets Sunday. 

She said the mall expected more youths to attend during the promotional event and bumped up security as a result. But the young patrons eventually became too unruly, and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office was called in to help.

“Sometime after 6 p.m., multiple fights broke out throughout the mall in different areas, including inside tenant spaces. Our on-shift security was forced to make calls to local law enforcement officials for aid in breaking up these fights,” Ms. Ritchie said. “Due to the magnitude of the crowds and for the safety of our patrons, and especially those with young children, the determination was made to temporarily cease business operations at the mall to restore order.” 

No weapons or injuries were reported after the scrums.

Large teen gatherings — and chaos — coincided with the National Cinema Day event across the country.

Police in Torrance, California, estimated that more than 1,000 juveniles went to Del Amo Fashion Center to witness youths fight each other. Authorities reported several minor injuries and one gunshot being fired.

About 50 young people were escorted off the Bay Street Mall in Emeryville in the San Francisco Bay Area over a disturbance. Police said a gunshot was fired just outside the mall and one juvenile was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening stab wounds.

Over a dozen teens and preteens were arrested Sunday in Boston after police said fights broke out among the young people.

One juvenile was accused of jumping on an officer’s back and trying to put the cop in a chokehold. Police said another kid jumped on the roof of a patrol car.

Fights between young people also broke out near theaters in Albany, New York,  as well as Douglasville, Georgia, where suspects were arrested.

A teen was arrested for gun possession after a fight broke out near a movie theater in the Seattle area, police said, and another teen was shot as masses of young people left a theater in the Chicago area.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.