HOW many mums and dads reading these words know exactly what their children are doing at this moment?

I'm not compiling a list of accountable parents here. I always assumed that anyone who took on the job did so in the certain knowledge that they had responsibilities, such as the supervision and control of their offspring.

I believed those duties were accepted as part of the greater role every parent played in the safety and development of children. I now accept I was being naive.

The world has changed to an alarming degree and parental control in many cases now equates to little more than throwing the kids out of the house when it's time for the favourite soaps.

Sociologists advance numerous reasons for the erosion of civilised behaviour and the alarming increase in criminal acts perpetrated by children, old, cynical and violent beyond their years.

The accelerating drift away from matrimony and the breakdown of relationships resulting in the proliferation of one-parent families are cited as prime reasons.

I'm not going to get into that argument here but I do believe that lack of proper parental supervision, be it in a conventional family situation or otherwise, is leading to a generation with a disturbingly nihilistic attitude.

There are any number of examples: small children, too young to be prosecuted, dropping stones from motorway bridges on cars travelling at speed. Imagine the carnage that could cause.

Mini-vandals piling obstacles on railway lines in the hope of watching a train derail. How do minds that young become so sick?

Within the last week I have been involved in two incidents, both virtually the same, which I would have found difficult to believe had they happened to another person. But I assure you they are true.

I have twice narrowly missed knocking down and seriously injuring, possibly killing, children no more than seven years old. The first a girl, the second a boy.

On neither occasion would it have been my fault. Both times the events leading to the near-miss were almost exactly the same; certainly too similar to be mere coincidence.

Both children started to cross the road when I was far enough away for them to make the kerb in safety. As I approached they slowed, then stopped, and openly defied me to run them down, skipping clear at the last second as I braked and swerved.

I couldn't believe what had happened on the first occasion. On the second I realised some form of "chicken run" was being enacted.

The girl laughed then ran to her watching mates on seeing my shocked reaction. The young lad gave me the finger when I stopped the car and asked him what the hell he was doing.

He knew that if I chased and caught him I wouldn't dare give him the belt across the ears I would have got had I done anything half as daft when I was his age.

What's the answer? You tell me.

Or maybe the people who monitor social behaviour patterns can tell us. I'd be interested to hear from them.