I agree 100% - it's the parents, not the children, that are the problem.

I do at least 20 transatlantic flights a year, and every time I have experienced a noise or behaviour problem with children in the plane (infants excluded), the children have been accompanied by their parents.

On the other hand, I have never seen an unaccompanied minor on an aircraft whose behaviour has been less than excellent - even the youngest ones (someone once snuck their 4 year old in as a UM on a domestic flight - I had the kid beside me on a full flight, and she was quite well behaved, for a 4 year old).

I wonder how much of this has to do with the "I'm a big shot" attitude that the FF tier programs sometimes create - some goof collects enough points to take his whole family with him non-rev, then wants to show all and sundry how important he is by sitting back and doing nothing to control the kids, knowing full well that his status level shows up on the manifest that the flight attendents get.