Are Your Kids Safe South of the Border?

Feb. 27, 2009— -- The beach towns of Baja California, Mexico, are warm, cheap and come with a lower drinking age -- all the needed ingredients to make the just south-of-the-border peninsula an attractive spring break destination.

But increased violence in Mexico has led the U.S. State Department and some American colleges to warn students to be careful everywhere, not just in border towns.

Megan Campbell, a freshman at Arizona State University, is getting warnings from home as well.

"My mom called me today and said, 'I don't want you to go. You have to be careful,'" she said. "She is very worried about it."

Marc Hamilton, also an ASU student, changed his plans after all the warnings.

"It's best not to go down there right now," he said. "Even with a large group of people, it's not a certainty you are going to be safe and able to have as much fun when you have all these problems going on around you."

Arizona's other state university, the University of Arizona in Tucson, is one of the colleges specifically asking its students not to spring break in Mexico

The State Department travel advisory says, "The greatest increase in violence has occurred near the U.S. Border," but warns, "Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in violent attacks in cities across the country," and "in recent years dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped across Mexico."