Berlin kids are now legally allowed to make a noise

I came across a funny story about kids in Berlin now being legally allowed to make a noise. Apparently until recently 'child noise' was an illegal issue to be dealt with swiftly by the police.

BBC report: Berlin's children get reprieve from noise police

The story discusses how child-friendly Berlin is on the one hand and how apparently comically un-child friendly it can be on the other:

Two Faced
There are toyshops by the hundreds. And puppet theatres. Sweetshops. Playgrounds with terrific slides. Ice creams scattered with gummi-bear jelly sweets. Sledging in winter, cycling in summer, tree-climbing and swimming in lakes. But should a little child fall off her bike, passers-by will laugh out loud. No mercy will be shown to a young child who has lost his ticket on the train, and beware like Hansel and Gretel children, those tempting German sweets.
Your teeth must be brushed three times a day, or Croko the Tooth Cleaning Crocodile might just gobble you up.
Take my elder daughter, Lilli's, junior school. The reward for keeping quiet in class? The teacher gives out a balloon filled with freezing water, to burst upon the head of a fellow pupil of one's choice.
An ancient history lesson included a film so gorily violent that even the toughest 10-year-olds covered their eyes.
"That's what life is like," they were told.
There is the science mistress who carries a long cane to "tap" wayward pupils. Recent school outings have included an unscheduled visit to a nuclear bunker, and a film about the struggles of an abandoned girl given up for international adoption.

This story kind of reminded me of when I was a kid. My mum is German - although we lived in England and only spoke English, which I guess pretty much qualifies me as 'eine Engländerin'. Well anyway, as lovely as my mother is in so many ways, she can also be ... to put it mildly... somewhat abrupt (at times - sorry mum!). She will think nothing of launching head first into a personal assault about the way you or anyone for that matter looks, physical features and all - and in fact a few of her German friends, one in particular, are exactly the same.

As a teenager this particular friend (who bearing in mind my siblings and I only saw occasionally every other summer or so) would think nothing of throwing up her hands and saying, "Oh my god, you look awful today!" and then going into great detail about all the reasons why she hates everything about you (something an insecure teenager doesn't necessarily need to hear! lol).

So anyway, my point is that as an English kid, I used to be really taken aback by these things, whereas now having spent a bit of time in Germany I have come to realise that maybe this is a pretty normal way for Germans to behave (gotta love them!!) and it's not always meant offensively. On the contrary it's possibly meant as a sign of endearment - much like a nit-picking monkey...

No I'm not comparing my mother to a monkey... am I digging a hole here!? lol