WE are having to get used to security cameras in shopping areas, cars parks, and in and around flats and other multi-storey buildings. They have become a fact of life in these troubled days of rising crime.

But now the phrase "someone to watch over them", when it comes to keeping an eye on children at play, also looks like moving into the realms of high technology. Security cameras may soon be installed in Bolton's parks, following a survey by Bolton Council leisure chiefs in Queens Park.

Those grassy havens, which have always been a 'great escape' for childhood fun and games when lessons were over, and during the school holidays, rarely posed a risk greater than a fall off the swings, or when that big slide was treated as a ski jump. A bump on the head was the worst risk that youngsters faced in our parks.

However, these days children say they are worried about being approached by strangers or drug pushers and that they would feel safer if "someone in authority was watching."

Full marks to council chiefs for taking this security problem seriously and promising action so promptly. This is far better than stepping up security after an incident similar to those that have made the headlines all too often, in which children have been injured or abducted by strangers.

We all treasure childhood pictures. So let's not put a price on the ones being used to try to ensure children's safety.

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