Apparently, taking heroin feels like being wrapped in cotton wool. If that's the case, then kids these days have no need for heroin, because they're already so wrapped in fucking cotton wool that they've forgotten how to grow up. The vast majority of you will have heard of a computer game called "Medal of Honour". It is a World War Two simulation, seen through the eyes of a soldier fighting on the western front. I it supposedly incredibly realistic. If that is the case, why is there no blood in the game? To make it more suitable for children? Take the following into consideration. It's OK for kids to kill people in this virtual reality, because they're not seeing any blood, and that makes it somehow less real. What is that teaching our children? That all the GErmans in the Second World War were simply evil machines, lacking souls. Simple cannon fodder which exist only to be killed. But of course, there's no blood, so it's suitable for kids. Is it right for kids to think that murder, institutionalised or otherwise, comes without any consequences? Would a more suitable game be one that allows you to see the death in all it's hideous gory details, coupled with screams and last wishes from the victims, perhaps allowing the player to see the thoughts going through their pitiful minds as they deal with the crushing inevitablity that they will not be drawing another breath, that they won't be going home to be reunited with their families, that they never had a chance to fully complete all the goals they had set for themselves? That would certainly make me think twice about emptying a clip out on some poor sap in a video game. OK, moving away from video games. Recently, the UK Television Channel 5 broadcast John Lndis' horror "An American Werewolf in London" after the 9:00PM watershed. Yet a great deal of the film was cut, including the scene showing a human body when a wolf had been shot (destroying a rather vital plot cue). Why was this cut to ribbons, even after the 9:00PM watershed? "Kids stay up past 9:00PM now" So what? So fucking what? So what if kids even see that kind of stuff? Contrary to popular opinion, being privvy to horror movies and televised-swearing, -blood, -gore, -drug-taking and -illegal activities does not mess with kids minds and create monsters. I saw Robocop when I was 12. Am I a murderer? My girlfriend saw countless horror movies before she was even 10. Is she a murderer? (She's not, of course. She's not even a goth, before any of you start asking). If children are not allowed to see any of the things (good and bad) that happen in the real world, how are they ever supposed to prepare to enter it? Think back on your own childhood. When did you learn about reproduction? How old were you? Who taught you? I learned when I was 4 or 5, my mother told me exactly what happens. I was never fed the usual bullshit about cabbage patches, storks, shit like that. I was told straight. Am I a rapist now? No. Have I ever contracted any sexually transmitted diseases? No. Have I ever impregnated someone through careless promiscuity? No. So where's the damage, I ask? When I was 14 I went to a party and got completely wasted on the most revolting drink in the world (Mad Dog 20/20, strawberry flavour, in case you're interested). Christ alone knows what happened that night. When I was 16 I got wasted in a beer tent and woke up very sore with a used condom next to me. So I thought to myself, Fuck this, I'm wasting all my money of this shit and I can't even control what I do? And it tastes like shit? Why bother? And so I stopped drinking. I stopped Drinking before I was legally allowed to drink (18 is the age in this country). My friends and family carried on, sue, but I'd had enough. But what if I'd been expressly prohibited from drinking alcohol until I was 21? Would it have been harmless fun? Or would I have gone out on the town and kicked the crap out of some other drunken fuck-up? Where's this going, you ask? Drugs. At my school, we were taught about drugs by the users and ex-users themselves. They explained in detail the effects of each drug, the upsides, the downsides, what they do to your body, and they gave us advice on the safest possible way of taking these drugs, should we wish to experiment. There was no "Just Say No" policy there. I have tried numerous drugs in the past, but always following the advice I was given at school. I stopped taking any form of narcotics when I was 17. By explaining everything about the drugs to me, the drug information class had sated some of my curiosity and helped me make my mind u as to which drugs to avoid ('instant death' drugs, like ecstasy have always been on my 'no' list). A "Just Say No" approach would have taught me nothing. My curious nature would have got the better of me and I would have tried anything I could lay my hands on. No doubt I'd have been shivering in a gutter for a few years before perhaps explaining to kids at school what the effects of each drug were. The point in this whole column is to highlight the fact that mollycoddling children until their early twenties is not going to help them out one iota. They simply will never grow up, they'll never realise what it means to contend with the harsh reality of life outside parental influence. And it's starting to show already. Big kids buying toys. Big Kids watching cartoons. Big kids remaking cartoons they used to watch. All this just leads to more and more stagnation. Kids should grow up. But first the adults need to grow some fucking balls.