I AM writing in response to your article and editorial comments on the visit by Baroness Susan Greenfield to a local school.

The article presents her speculative theories that prolonged Facebook activity is addictive and that spending lots of time using computers and video games can cause physical damage to young brains.

The trouble is that these scaremongering statements are purely untested ideas. As for “trolling”, this is just another word for bullying. It happens when kids socialise online, it happens when they socialise in person. It is reportable, traceable and blockable.

We can’t focus on the medium. It’s the message that needs attention.

No one is arguing against children (and adults for that matter) getting out and exercising more but the reality is that we are now scared to let them because our road systems are designed for the convenience of motor traffic at the expense of pedestrian and cycling safety.

No wonder these kids are using internet connectivity to socialise – they have been denied the right to socialise in person.

They can’t play in their residential roads, they certainly aren’t allowed to travel by themselves to visit friends (unlike the Dutch who have been building a safe road system for over 40 years now).

Their Dutch counterparts safely go out with friends from a very young age. In some towns, 100 per cent of children cycle to school.

Eight years is the average age for them to do so on their own.

It’s time we started building safe roads for our own children and stop blaming technology for our inability to see where the problem really lies and our inactivity in calling for safe streets.

MIKE CHALKLEY, chairman, Bournemouth Cycling Forum, Cowper Road, Bournemouth