A Judge has told a 13-year-old boy, found guilty of possessing over 300 obscene pictures, that an interest in porn is healthy. It didn't stop him giving the lad an 18-month supervision order and putting him on the sex offenders' register for two-and-a-half years though.

Odd it certainly is. The boy, who can't be named for legal reasons, is the youngest ever to be charged with dealing in pornographic images of children. He had downloaded over 300 of them from the Internet. Most were of teenage girls but some showed children as young as one being abused and one involved a dog.

District Judge James Prowse said: "While undoubtedly committing a crime, the interest was a healthy one, not an unhealthy one, which usually there is of adults interested in people of your age. But you knew what you were doing. Every one of these images is in fact a real child being sexually exploited by adults."

The apparent ease with which a young boy was able to find extremely explicit and disturbing pictures will no doubt reignite the debate over safe surfing for kids. The Judge broached the issue: "It is disturbing that someone as young as you was so readily able to get access to this type of material, not just photographs of girls your own age, but children engaging in thoroughly indecent acts."

Most guides to safe surfing will advise that parents put PCs in an open and shared area of the home and make it a focal point for the whole family. ®