at what age do you think children should be held responsible

To say a peticular age for all kids I don't think would be fair. Kids all mature at a different pace. But I would say as soon as the child knows and fully understands the difference between right and wrong. Then they should be held accountable for thier actions either legally or by thier parents.

It's a hard call. A child's ability to grasp right & wrong in complicated situations is very much dependent on how mature they are. My 4 year old tried to steal something from a store the other day. He had asked for something & I said no. He knew doing something I said no to was wrong, but he doesn't have a concept of property yet & doesn't quite understand money yet either. He thinks when we get things at the store, we just put them in our cart & basically tell the store we want these things; paying for them is just not part of the equation for him at this age. But I know his older sister at the same age would have known it was wrong to steal- we owned a store when his sister was his age & she saw money exchanged more often. Sorry for the long-winded answer. What I am getting at is even at the same age, one child can grasp these concepts and another won't be able to. It's not right to hold a child responsible for something they just don't understand.