"As a European", no we didn't. Europe is far too big to generalize so casually like that. In many northern parts of Europe it is frequently raining. In the 80s and 90s me and my friends spent our time indoors because when it was either cold, or cold and wet. You might get a month or two in summer when the weather was better - if you were lucky. So we spent our time indoors, doing homework or on computers, or round each other's houses (playing video games with each other).
A mall would have been a useful place to hang out because it's under a roof and there are things to do, but there were very few good malls in that part of the UK and anyway to get to them you'd have to be able to drive. But there's no culture of young driving there. In the USA in some states you can drive at 14! In the UK you can't even start learning until 16 and in most of Europe the minimum driving age is 18.
A mall would have been a useful place to hang out because it's under a roof and there are things to do, but there were very few good malls in that part of the UK and anyway to get to them you'd have to be able to drive. But there's no culture of young driving there. In the USA in some states you can drive at 14! In the UK you can't even start learning until 16 and in most of Europe the minimum driving age is 18.