Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has urged mothers to warn teenage children about the dangers of carrying a knife before it is "too late".
Ms Smith outlined measures to tackle knife crime, including an advertising campaign aimed at deterring young people from carrying knives and knife arches and wands.
"What we also know is whether or not you are going to get on well in your life starts in your family and whatever mums think who have got teenagers... and sometimes they think they don't listen to them - actually they may well," she told GMTV.
"What we are encouraging mums to do is talk to their children, talk to their teenage kids about carrying knives, early, before it is too late, and we are providing them with all sorts of places where they can go for information to help them to do that."
Asked about the stabbing of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in London and of anti-gun campaigner Pat Regan in Leeds, Ms Smith said events such as these were worrying.
She said: "It is these sort of events that make us all feel worried and want to redouble our efforts."
