The charity Barnardo’s has released a poll showing over half the country thinks children are beginning to behave like animals.

Forty-nine percent of 2,021 people surveyed thought children now pose more of a danger to their peers and to adults with 43 percent saying something has to be done to protect them from youngsters.

Fifty-four percent thought children are beginning to behave like animals and 45 percent agreed that people refer to kids as “feral” because they behave that way.

Barnardo’s Chief Executive Martin Narey says it is appalling that people think that way.

What do you think?

Should parents be allowed to smack their children, or should smacking be treated the same as an assault?

A group of MPs is again pushing for a change in the law for an outright ban on smacking.

The current law allows parents to smack their children but the punishment cannot leave bruises, cuts or scratches.

Those who overstep the mark can face prison. Campaigners say this situation is a mess and confusing for parents. Children’s Commissioner for England Al Aynsley-Green has spoken out against it.

However, polls indicate that the majority of parents believe they should have the right to discipline their children how they want, including the use of smacking.

Should smacking be banned? Send us your comments 

“We make games for the people that play them. We don’t make them for the Daily Mail.”

So says Dan Houser, the producer who co-created the Grand Theft Auto computer game series, one of the most successful of all time.

While sales have gone through the roof, the gangster game has attracted waves of criticism from newspapers, parents’ groups and politicians, including Hillary Clinton.

She says the series demeans women and contributes to a “silent epidemic” of sex and violence in the media that could harm children.

“They’re playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them. You know, that’s kind of hard to digest,” she said in a speech in 2005.

With the fourth instalment finally here, Houser is unrepentant about its trademark mix of fights, car-jacking and bad language and says computer games are unfairly singled out for criticism.

Violent TV shows like “The Sopranos” or films like “The Godfather” win handfuls of awards, while games with adult themes come under intense fire, he says.

“Most of it’s just Ludditism and people having a fear of things they don’t understand,” he said in an interview. “We see games as being an emergent art form…that will eventually supplant or challenge movies.”

Supporters say there is no established link between computer games and violent behaviour.

And anyway, games with adult content are given a rating which means shops can’t sell them to children.

Do you think there should be stricter controls on violent video games or is the focus on games rather than TV, films and the Internet unwarranted?

Ofcom says millions of children who use social networking sites are exposing themselves to potential danger by leaving their privacy settings on “open,” thereby allowing all and sundry to peruse their personal details.

Its figures show a no less than a quarter of all children aged 8 to 11 in Britain, are registered with a social networking site.

It is the latest in a long series of warnings about Internet danger to children — which may suggest that either the children or their parents do not seem to care too much.

Do you think users are being too blasé, or are the dangers being exaggerated? Have you ever had any personal experience of the dangers Ofcom and others warn us about?

Two initiatives have focused the mind on badly behaved children this week and how to deal with them.

Under the first, Children’s Secretary Ed Balls proposes that trouble-makers as young as 10 should sign a good behaviour contract . The “most challenging” among them will have to stick to the order or risk a criminal record.

The second, more extreme, suggestion comes from Gary Pugh, forensic science director for the Metropolitan Police, who was quoted in The Observer as saying trouble makers as young as five should be recorded on the national DNA database because future offenders can be picked out an early age.

The idea has been widely criticised, both by those who dislike the idea of stigmatising children at such a young age and those who bemoan what they call the government’s obsession with compiling databases — and its embarrassing tendency to lose personal data. The government has been non-committal but says it is listening to all views.

Do you believe law enforcement authorities need more tools at their disposal to deal with unruly children?

Once, kids had to work hard to become famous.

Whatever their chosen route, it would usually involve endless hours of practice — be it in the gym, on the pitch, at the keyboard or on the stage.

Now, with the advent of the reality TV star and the explosion of shows like the X Factor, America’s Next Top Model, Laguna Beach and the like, it seems anyone can do it and earn themselves millions in the process.

In the meantime, the media obsession with celebrities like David Beckham and Paris Hilton reinforces the yearning for stardom.

No wonder then, perhaps, that many children think it’s hardly worth bothering with their studies any more, as a survey of teachers by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found.

“Celebrity culture can perpetuate the notion that celebrity status is the greatest achievement and reinforces the belief that other career options are not valuable,” the Association said.

Are kids becoming dangerously celebrity-obsessed these days or do they still have their heads screwed on? And if it really is a problem, should schools be trying to counter the trend more actively?