The prompt

WHERE did the last 20 years go?

This is a question many of us may ask ourselves as we clamber out of bed and reluctantly take a look in the mirror this Sunday morning, but it's one all the more pertinent if you're surrounded by web-savvy kids tapping away at the keyboard before they so much as lift a cereal spoon, I'd imagine.

While I'm not usually one prone to supporting Draconian measures, I confess I found myself willing the Government to pull out all the stops on its latest tussle with the issues of censorship and privacy. The latest form of this debate embraces childhood and culture and is, I fear, an issue set to become more pressing if we don't bring in the powers of Government clout and legislation to cushion us from future dangers.

From the revelations regarding the outrageous website that is www.bimbo.com – the girls' gaming page that encourages fake tans, skinny waists and silicone enhancement as the route to the end of the rainbow of life for girls aged 9 to 16 – to the Government-commissioned report from childcare expert Dr Tanya Byron into the issue of internet freedoms and the perils of the unsupervised online and gaming activities of young children, it has been an eye-opening week illustrating the extent to which the online and gaming culture has consumed childhood. Indeed this snowball we are now attempting to thaw is perhaps as much to do with how little adults have done to keep up with these shifts in security risks as it is with the speed at which children have developed their abilities.

From the social networking activity on the web I have taken part in, it is instantly apparent to anyone with more than a few brain cells that the exposure afforded from such sites as Bebo, Facebook and myspace comes with extreme high risk. Just as much risk as walking down the street it could be argued, but the distinction is that our, and more importantly our children's, increased use and indeed reliance on the internet as a source of information and communication has yet to be fully taken in hand as a social concern and dealt with responsibly.

I am not a parent, and I can only judge these dangers on second-hand reports, but when I have seen my five-year-old niece navigate her way round a Polly Pocket web game, or teach me how to use her Nintendo DS in a matter of seconds, I too can imagine what the hop, skip and jump is once a child is aged nine and upwards.

That is why rather than flinch at these latest gaming and online security proposals, I think we should be thankful that finally someone is taking responsibility for going some way towards protecting today's kids from harm. Not from experience, education and entertainment, mind – just from harm.

Our writer's week

CHITRA RAMASWAMY

ARTS WRITER

A week in bed with the flu meant that my cultural activities were completely home-based – actually bed-based if truth be told. This turned out to be no bad thing, and I spent a wonderful night tuned into Radio 3, listening to Wagner's Tristan Und Isolde, live from the Met in New York. James Levine conducted Deborah Voigt as Isolde, and she was as wonderful as you might expect, with Robert Dean Smith making his debut in the role of Tristan. Is it ridiculous to say I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday night?

SIOBHAN SYNNOT

FIlM WRITER

Limbering up for Martin Scorsese's upcoming concert movie, Shine A Light, meant a revisit to Cocksucker Blues, Robert Frank's 1972 documentary about the transgressive actualities of the Rolling Stones on tour, cavorting around hotel suites and airplanes with nude groupies and enduring noisy boredom in the deepest bowels of America's hockey arenas. I especially enjoyed Keith's decision to chuck a telly out of his hotel window, after carefully checking that there was no one below. It's a pity Shine A Light is going to be less warts and all. I guess you can't always get what you want.

STUART KELLY

LITERARY EDITOR

At last, season four of House, the American medical drama starring Hugh Laurie as the misanthropic, limping genius, started on Five. The decision to reboot the show, with House having a whole new set of students to inspire, bully, fancy and wind up, has nipped the tendency to formula in the bud. It's by far and away the most witty, morally ambiguous and cynical US import – guess it took having a Brit in the lead to jump start it.