You know how shops are now putting your photographs on birthday cakes? You bring in a photo and they scan it and use, basically, an inkjet printer to print it out only, instead of ink, they use food coloring and, instead of paper, a thin sheet of sugar. At my nephew's last birthday party, the cake featured a picture of him dressed as Teddy Roosevelt, a few other presidents, and Spongebob. So, pretty much anything goes.

Well, almost anything. One mum thought it would be cute to put a picture of her son when he was five-months-old on the cake for his twenty-first birthday. Cute and, perhaps, a wee bit embarrassing, since the picture showed the youngster with a bare bum. Unfortunately, the folks at the store didn't find it so cute; they said the picture violated their no-nudity policy. "It was a photo of my son at five-months-old," said Gail Jordan. "I could not believe it"

Sadly, this does not surprise me. I'm not sure what has happened over the last half century or so, but a naked child is no longer seen as cute -- it's considered pornographic. I think our children's childhood is suffering because of it. Not to mention our children's twenty-first birthday parties.