IT has been difficult this week to understand what was in the minds of the group of Darwen youngsters who set up their own stunts in the style of the Jackass TV programme.

What possesses a boy to jump over fires, staple a hand, set fire to feet or have nails pressed into his forehead so that it can be caught on a camcorder and displayed on a home-made stunt website?

The answer appears to be some sort of quest to imitate the TV programme Jackass even though it comes on to screens with repeated "Don't try this yourself" warnings.

As we said on Tuesday, it's obvious that impressionable children seem incapable of not being influenced so the programme should be taken off the air.

But today we have the mother of one of them explaining how she drove into her own son quite deliberately on the road to help him make a video for the awful "Live Now Die Later" website.

No one was hurt creating this "stunt" but that's hardly the point.

It's almost beyond comprehension that a parent can stage such a road accident involving his or her own son just for a video.

If the same scene was being put together for a proper film it would involve highly experienced professionals with proper back-up including trained paramedics with first aid facilities.

In Anchor Avenue, Darwen, it seems that common sense has gone out of the window.