Something To Be Applauded

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One of the most worrying aspects of modern life is the apparent increase in the number of paedophilia cases reported. We seem to hear of them almost every day.

Paedophilia has undoubtedly spread in proportion to the increased accessibility of the internet, and I for one am very careful about what I put into a search engine in case I access something nasty by mistake.

Most of us can think of youngsters we know and the expert but innocent way they use their laptops, mobile phones and digital cameras. Indeed, research from Ofcom published last autumn showed that 80% of five to seven-year-olds use the internet and that among nine to 11-year olds, 94% do so.

So a new children’s safety campaign run by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety is to be applauded. The campaign uses cartoons to show children as young as five that people they might meet on the internet are not always what they seem.

The internet is a great thing, but it is both sad and inevitable that it will be used by predators for the sort of things that disgust and which few of us can understand or tolerate.
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How Very Sad!

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For some years as part of fundraising efforts for my local service club, I used to write personalised letters to children who sent their Christmas wishes to Santa Claus. A number of service clubs still do this, and the letters received from innocent children are an absolute delight to read.

But, alas, the dark shadow of paedophilia has fallen across the town of North Pole in Alaska, for the US Postal Service are no longer sending them mail addressed to Santa Claus at the North Pole.

Why? Because a registered sex offender was found to have been working on the programme last year. and, as a result, the US Postal Service now prohibits volunteers from having access to children;s names and addresses.

Volunteers in North Pole used to ensure each child got a reply signed by a Santa elf and bearing the crucial North Pole postmark. But no longer.

The town’s Mayor has agreed that caution is necessary, but has compared the action of the US Postal Service as akin to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas.

How right he is. And how very sad!
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