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Being the owner of two 3 going on 4yr old cats I've never seen this kind of behavior. Yes they do play but never to hurt. And they try the disembowel attack but again gently.
Yes they do walk an tables and so on but a stern verbal warning tends to be enough. As they are indoor cats I had to train them to behave on the balconies(yes we have 3 of them but only two are really accessible). Third floor and this being an old block each floor is ~3-4m. Had to teach them NOT to go on the outside of the railing and so on. It took effort to do it but now they know not to put their paws outside the railing.
As for furniture scratching other than an older piece of furniture that destined for trash they actually used the scratching post automatically when they got it. I find a stern word and to show that something actually hurts to be a LOT better than any other approach.
If they hit me with a claw I'll go "AAUW!" and in 9/10 cases the cat stops and looks at me. In general it doesn't repeat.
Yes they do climb curtains and hang off them and so on but it's not much of a problem. They are heavy duty thick curtains meant to actually do something effective not just attract dust and look pretty.
As others have pointed out a toy or two can help with this as well. And as they are just playing teaching them is important.
One of my cats knows to get to the balcony he needs to whine at me infront of the door and eventually I'll open it. But if I'm not quick enough he'll try to do some exploration around my room along the way. Or play with wires and so on. He also knows what is needed to open the door. He constantly paws the door knob and the key.
So to sum up. Treat them as any other intelligent being and they'll learn. How would you teach a child to not do something... It really is as simple as that.
Of course as any other intelligent being they have their own quirks and issues and will at times ignore what they've learned.
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