Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title XX Chapter 140
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140, § 197 (2026)

Admission of children to entertainments

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 197. Whoever, himself or by his servant or agent, admits a child under fourteen to any licensed show or place of amusement unless such child is accompanied by a person who has attained the age of eighteen, shall, on complaint of a parent or guardian of the child or of any police officer or of a supervisor of attendance of the town in which the child is so admitted, be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars; but he shall not be liable to said fine if a child apparently fourteen years old has obtained admission by any written misrepresentation or by any unauthorized entrance to said place of amusement, or has entered with and apparently in the company of a person over eighteen but does not remain with such person, provided the person in charge of said place of amusement shall remove such child immediately therefrom upon knowledge that the child is under fourteen and not then accompanied by a person eighteen years or older. This section shall not apply to shows or entertainments which take place before six o'clock in the afternoon and during the hours that the school of which the child attending such show or entertainment is a pupil is not in session. It shall be prima facie evidence that such school is in session if the public schools are in session in the town where said show or entertainment takes place.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 2001–2005 · leading case: City of Worcester v. Labor Relations Comm'n, 438 Mass. 177 (Mass. 2002).
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City of Worcester v. Labor Relations Comm'n, 438 Mass. 177 (Mass. 2002). “119, § 39E, and they may bring complaints for unlawful admission of unaccompanied children to places of entertainment, G. L. c. 140, § 197. The panoply of duties assigned to supervisors of attendance involve many that are far removed from the law enforcement duties of police…”
Commonwealth v. Kneram, 826 N.E.2d 733 (Mass. App. Ct. 2005). “, G. L. c. 140, § 197, as appearing in St. 1973, c.”
City of Worcester v. Labor Relations Comm'n, 756 N.E.2d 1220 (Mass. App. Ct. 2001). “101, §19 (dealing with ‘bootblacking’)]; and of children admitted to or attending shows or entertainments in violation of [G. L. c. 140, § 197 (dealing with unaccompanied attendance by minors at ‘shows or entertainments’ after 6:00 P.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.