Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Paedophilia paranoia?

The only slight down side during our trip to the swimming pool was that we were only able to take a couple of pictures in the pool before being told we had to ask permission beforehand because of child protection rules. I have to say that I think this kind of "protection" is getting out of hand. We wanted to take pictures of our own child on his first trip to the swimming pool, but because of the fear of the media-created "bogeyman stranger paedophile" we were barred from doing so.

A colleague at work was commenting on how good it would be if the nurseries had webcams so parents could view their child at any time, but then said that paedophikles might hack in and watch too. Well I'm not sure where this sort of fear will end. A paedophile could be walking down the street looking at our child, so should we run for cover and never let him out of the house? Of course not!

The sad fact is that most paedophiles are trusted members of families or organisations who have contact with children. "Stranger danger" surely exists, but it is easy to get its likelihood out of proportion.