YOU only have to look at some of the awful child sex abuse and killing cases of the past few years to understand the parental paranoia that grips this country.

Stricter regulations had to be brought in to try to catch perverts fuelled by the mass of hardcore internet porn that has helped some ruthless businessmen become tycoons.

But it’s a fact that the imposition of lots of forms and licences doesn’t on its own stop undesiables getting close to youngsters.

What it does do is spawn legions of bureaucrats who generate masses of paper.

They are supremely efficient at ensuring boxes are ticked but useless when it comes to exercising judgement.

They set up systems which determined paedophiles are still able to bypass as we continue to discover.

But at the same time pen pushers enforce ridiculous rules which mean, for example, that professional folk singers cannot go into a school to talk to and entertain a class without proof that they have been positively vetted by the CRB.

That’s why the announced plans to overhaul child protection laws and streamline the Criminal Records Bureau system are a sensible step in the right direction.

It’s insane that aunts and uncles cannot take pictures of their nieces and nephews in a school play or at a sports event without worrying that they might be attacked by a mob of incensed parents.

Things have also come to a pretty pass when you go to collect a four-year-old girl from pre-school and feel compelled to make clear to all those around you that you ARE her granddad and not some dodgy stranger.

Last year we were in a leisure centre café with two adult Australian visitors when my wife was tapped on the shoulder as she took a picture of them and reminded that all photography was banned ‘for child security reasons.’ There is no doubt that there are a disturbing number of people around who will try to talk their way into positions of trust close to children in order to get weird sexual kicks.

But when it comes to volunteer helpers at local children’s nurseries and the like those in charge should surely be able to make common sense judgements based on an individual’s own status – eg is the person a parent, from the area and someone with verifiable references?

If it’s a full time teaching post of course a proper CRB check is essential to ensure someone with a criminal past is not let loose in the classroom.

And it’s not just convictions that need to be checked.

Since ‘justice’ today may not mean being actually charged with an offence, we also need to be able to find out whether an applicant has had any cautions.