Leader: Don't fear generation Xbox

"Utopian blarney", "complete toffee", "absolute rubbish" and "what a joke" were some of the more polite reader comments on our coverage of Peter Cochrane's keynote at this week's silicon.com CIO Forum.

His argument - that tech-savvy youngsters entering the workforce won't want to be told what to do by an IT department, and that as a result the IT department will go "way of the typing pool" - certainly touched a nerve.

Many pointed out the security risks of letting new recruits choose their own technology - and the huge gulf between neat little consumer gadgets such as iPods and the big beasts like ERP and CRM.

And while this is true, it also misses the point.

It's not a case of these kids running wild in the server room. Rather, companies are going to be invaded by a hoard of new recruits with very different expectations of the technology they use - and if they aren't addressed then there is going to be some friction.

Quite a few comments about "the youth of today" sounded like they came from the same grumpy neighbours that tell kids to 'stop kicking that ball around'.

Unfortunately, just moaning about long-haired, iPod-touting "yooves" won't make them vanish in a puff of smoke, to be replaced with the Brylcreemed mini-adults of yesteryear.

Many of these kids have grown up with digital technologies all around them. To them CDs are about as quaint as wax cylinders, and most probably don't even know you used to have to put a strip of chemically treated celluloid inside a camera to make it work.

These kids live and breathe network-centric computing and mash-ups without even realising it.

So when they get to work they are likely to expect the same freedom.

If you lock everything down you will probably find they will get round your controls - which might be more of a security headache than giving them some flexibility in the first place.

Plenty of companies spend big bucks on setting up panels of young people to help them come up with ideas for products and services. Why not use some of your new users in the same way, and harness their creativity to improve the services you provide to all your users?

Sure you can try to squash them into a box and destroy that potential - but why not see where their ideas will lead you?