In The News - An alternative take on last week's media

But the Mail on Sunday is having none of it, branding the concept intrusive and suggesting "there is a risk that the interrogators could include people who derive a perverse thrill from asking children personal questions". Worse still, the government's definition of "at risk" is "so broad that many decent parents could find themselves labelled as potential abusers". Help. It's not clear exactly where the Mail on Sunday's writer is getting all this from. She refers to a "police source", who claims colleagues are reluctant to interview teenagers using the CAF questionnaire. "I'm meant to check whether they eat their greens and if they are 'enjoying and achieving their aims'. What if their aims are mugging and stabbing?" says the unnamed officer. "When a call comes in involving young people we pretend to be busy. Just filling in one of these forms, with a foul-mouthed yob who's laughing at you, will take half a shift." If that's true then it really is scary.