It's a truly sad indictment of our times that some schools even think about taking the step of banning video cameras at children's nativity plays for fear that the footage could end up on the internet to feed paedophiles' evil lust for pictures of youngsters in even the most innocent of situations.

Bradford National Union of Teachers secretary Ian Murch calls the move - which has been taken at a school in Luton - "bordering on the edge of paranoia", and while many would agree with him, there are just as many who share the fears of those teachers and parents who have supported the drastic measure elsewhere.

Nativity plays and other school activities are a source of great joy for children, parents and teachers, and doting mums and dads are quite within their rights to want a permanent keepsake of such important milestones of growing up, especially in these days of constantly-evolving technology which enables such memories to be recorded easily and inexpensively.

It seems a terrible shame that what should be a simple activity now has the shadow of fear and nervousness cast over it, like so many other childhood pastimes that earlier generations enjoyed but which parents today feel they cannot allow their offspring to indulge in.

Perhaps the actions of the Luton school are over-cautious, and are unlikely to be taken up by schools in this area. But by the same token, we should be thinking long and hard about what has led to this step being taken, and look at ways to make young people safer without curbing their freedom.

It is about time childhood with all its innocence and joy was reclaimed for children once and all.