"Dad, can I go on the laptop?"

These words, usually uttered by my 9 year-old, but increasingly by the 4 year-old, always make me want to shout, 'NO, THE WEB IS AN INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS HOTBED OF DEPRAVITY-READ A BOOK INSTEAD'.

And then I turn my brain back on and the negotiations begin.

I was talking to another parent a while ago about on-line security and remembered back to the 'Safer children in a digital world' report by Dr Tanya Byron. Although the report came out in 2008 it is still incredibly prescient.

If you're interested in how children learn by using on-line technology and video games then I'd urge you to look at the report which you can find here.

What made me think about this whole issue again recently was the story that a small number of children had been granted shotgun licenses. The BBC broke the story here. I took to wondering if Steve Bloomfield (who says age should not be a restriction to shotgun usage) of the British Association of Shooting and Conservation had a similarly relaxed attitude to allowing children to shoot virtual games.
                          
I think the age rating system for video games is clearly a good thing and I won't allow my boys to play that are age inappropriate. However, I also know that if I had to choose between real or virtual shotguns I'd hand over the virtual version to my own children every time.