WHEN Firstborn took up rock climbing at the age of 15 I remember feeling happy that he had discovered the joys of physical exercise in the great outdoors.

Much better than hanging around outside the local off licence, smoking and drinking cans of lager like some of his contemporaries, I thought.

But I was also worried. Climbing is, after all, one of the more dangerous pursuits and has claimed the lives and limbs of many before.

It’s only natural for parents to worry about their children. As soon as they’re born you’re examining them for lumps and bumps; worrying about sniffles and sneezes. When mine were toddlers the words "be careful’’ should have been stamped on my forehead. I was so good at spotting potential dangers that I could have got a job with the Health and Safety Executive.

As they’ve got older the urge to protect them has not diminished but now I have to bite my tongue and cross my fingers. To some extent they have to learn from their own experiences and mistakes and, to be honest, teenagers are not great at taking advice.

In the last month, Secondborn has discovered that she too enjoys dangling dangerously from ropes and climbing with only the meanest of finger holds. So now I have two children hooked on one of the world’s most hazardous pastimes.

And I’m wondering if the reason climbing appeals to them is because the rest of their lives are so safe, so controlled and so regulated.

This week the Royal Society of Arts produced a report condemning the "cotton wool" culture that the present Government continues to foster. Apparently, in the last year alone 33 laws and more than 1,000 regulations were introduced designed to reduce risk to youngsters.

The truth is that while such rules might be intended to preserve life they may, in fact, have the opposite long-term result.

When I was a kid we used to climb trees, play out in the street and make our own way to school and back.

Children today are discouraged from taking risks; they sit at home attached to their computers and Gameboys, becoming obese and cranky. At school they are even more safely cocooned – with rubberised playgrounds and risk-assessed classrooms.

I heard a psychologist on the radio who said that she thought one of the reasons why the drug culture is so strong among young people from all backgrounds is that drug use allows them to take the risks that they hadn’t experienced while growing up.

That may or may not be, but as my Offspring are nearly at that age when they will be cast adrift into the big, bad world, I’m wondering now if I should have been quite so protective.

The RSA report by academics at Brunel University, lays some of the blame for over-protectiveness on mothers and recommends that men become more actively involved in the rearing of children.

More rough and tumble is, they say, essential.

But not, I think, while climbing.