'WAS it school bullies who killed that boy on his way home from the library?'' asked my incredulous nine-year-old the other day.

It's at times like this that the world can appear, both to children and parents, a grim and frightening place.

The murder of Sarah Payne is still fresh in our minds. Yet another Catholic priest has been accused of abusing young children in his care. And it has been revealed there has been an increase in the global production of heroin used to target schoolchildren.

Is anyone really surprised, then, at the report out this week which shows children today spend too much time staying at home watching videos or playing on their computers? At least, many parents reason, they're safe.

There are weeks, like this, when it is particularly difficult to relax and let our children enjoy the sort of freedom they deserve. But we do have to keep the horror stories in perspective.

Youngsters today do face dangers that we never knew. But keeping them "safe" at home, behind closed doors, for huge chunks of their childhood is just as harmful.

Life is full of risks. That is something children have to learn to cope with. And they do. If only it were as easy for parents to learn to hide all our anxieties, relax and let them enjoy the excitement of childhood.

AS another investigation is carried out into alleged abuse by a priest at a Catholic school, the Church must ask itself, Why? In the past five years, one in every 300 of the 6,000 Roman Catholic priests in England and Wales has been convicted of sex offences against children. This is far higher than in the general population. Is it because the Church is so desperate for new priests it is not vetting them adequately? Is it naive about paedophilia, granting abusers forgiveness all too easily through the confessional? The words of one Archbishop recently, who failed to call in police despite repeated warnings about a paedophile priest who was later jailed, are telling. "I did what I thought was in the best interests of the Church,'' he said. We all hope that the Church will now do what's in the best interests of the children.

A HEADTEACHER'S plan to introduce unisex toilets in school to combat bullying and vandalism has met with fierce opposition. A horrified-sounding Department for Education announced it was illegal, adding, "the time is not right". But the Manchester school is proposing gender-coded cubicles with children sharing just the washbasin area, a system which works well in other European countries, with no hiding place for gang thuggery. If only we had shared public toilets everywhere. Then I would spend less time outside the Gents waiting for a five-year-old boy who refuses to come into the Ladies with me. And I could even send my husband off to the loo to change the baby's nappy occasionally.

DIVORCE rates for 1999 are the lowest for ten years. While I don't wish to sound cynical, I can't help wondering if this may be to do with the fact that those women who divorce after the end of this year will be entitled to half their husbands' pensions, while those who divorce before the deadline won't. Perhaps more marriages are working. But I suspect the figures will shoot up again in 2001.

FORMER EastEnders actress Daniella Westbrook, whose cocaine-ravaged nose is in the news again, admits she still has a drug problem. She is pathetically self-indulgent and desperate for sympathy. But it's hard to feel sorry for anyone who, during a recent newspaper interview, broke off to feed her perfectly healthy four-year-old son Kai doses of liquid paracetamol, sometimes as close as an hour apart, just to keep him quiet. And she didn't even see the irony.