EDITORIAL: Why children need a commissioner now

But at the same time there is ambivalence in our attitudes to the young.

People will readily dig into their pockets to support high-profile campaigns to stop the abuse of vulnerable children. In fact, our support for children's charities is almost as great as for animal charities. And there, perhaps, lies a clue to the fact that we like our children to know their place.

Let the helpless children in need of our protection and guidance become adolescents with the means to make their opinions or disaffection with adult ways known, and attitudes change. A group of youngsters hanging out in a bus shelter with a few cans of lager on a Saturday night because they have nowhere else to socialise - or at least nowhere that they can afford - suddenly becomes a threatening gathering that, if the antisocial behaviour bill becomes law, the police will be able to disperse at will.