Frank Field, the Coalition's poverty adviser, wants school pupils to be given classes in parenting. A needless scheme, you may argue, given that most girls today are already seasoned mothers by the age of 13, but for the few with no experience of raising children, I think it sounds a great idea.
The main problem, Mr Field says, is that parents today have no grasp of "tough love". They fail to "set boundaries for [their] children". I once interviewed a psychologist about this subject – Dr Aric Sigman, author of The Spoilt Generation – and he said much the same. "There seems to be a confusion between being a parent and being a friend," he said. "People want to endear themselves to their children. In our liberal age, it's thought to be much better to have a laissez-faire attitude to children doing what they want than to be authoritarian. But this is a highly destructive trend."

A teenage girl in Xianyang, Shaanxi province, cut off the cable of her parents' computer because she felt neglected.

The girl said her parents were addicted to an online game called "Happy Farm", and were always on the computer whenever they were home.

The girl's parents, who said they had no clue they were ignoring their daughter, have vowed to stop playing the game.