Leader: Are we too PC for our own good?

The decision by Scottish schools to ban the bringing of camera phones into school has been praised in some quarters as another obstacle to paedophiles looking to procure images of young children.

Reports suggest - with a heavy reliance upon the hypothetical - that kids could take photos of each other in PE lessons then circulate them on their own websites, which in turn could be found by paedophiles who would then abuse the pictures.

On one level our reaction was 'Well what are kids doing taking any phones into school?' But then times have moved on and many parents would actually rather their children were contactable.

So the problem with this is that a safety measure - which enables children to contact their parents and vice versa - is now being removed by legislation built around a worst case scenario. Many parents who have been pestered into buying expensive camera phones may not have the means to shell out now for a replacement low-tech handset.

One parent who spoke to silicon.com expressed concern that children may be left waiting at the school gates or put in danger if they cannot corroborate a story about a change in who was collecting them.

The public service infomercial which used to show somebody arriving at the gates claiming "I work with your Mum, she asked if I could collect you because she's running late" would be unnecessary if kids could quickly phone Mum to check. But now they won't be able to because their must-have camera phone will be at home.

The mother we spoke to likened it to the over-officious political correctness that banned all cameras from school plays and the general demonisation of all things high-tech - a stance we've disagreed with very strongly in the past .