MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Interior Ministry is concerned over the fact that the average age of juvenile delinquents is falling, a ministry official said Wednesday.

Leonid Vedenov, deputy head of the ministry's public order protection department, said juvenile delinquents were now younger than nine years old, and even 6-year-olds had been arrested.

Vedenov said that in the summer of 2005 Russian policemen had conducted Operation Teenager, during which 9,500 teens were arrested for committing crimes and 109,000 for infractions.

He said juvenile delinquency and child neglect were closely related to adults' attitudes toward children. Some 40,000 parents and legal representatives of children have been found by administrators to be delinquent in fulfilling their parental responsibilities, he added.

"A total of 575 parents were criminally charged with violent treatment of children," the official said.

Vedenov said results from Operation Teenager showed the age of drug addicts had fallen from 17 to 12.5 years old, and 40% of schoolchildren knew where and how to get drugs.

Some 144,000 children and teenagers, 21,500 of whom were in need of state assistance, were brought to police stations during the operation. More than 1,500 teens were brought to temporary youth centers, 4,000 to social shelters, and more than 120,000 children were returned to their parents.