Retorts

Playing with Pyrotechnics

Recently the media have carried yet another set of horror stories about children using the Internet to find how to make bombs.

I'm mystified as to why this is even worthy of comment. I'm sure most of my male acquaintances (and a fair proportion of the female ones) are already quite capable of mixing up crude gunpowder or napalm without needing to hunt up recipes.

Youthful pyromania is nothing new -- for decades at least, kids have played with things that burn or go bang with varying degrees of lethality. Any public library, school library or bookshop contains the requisite information. Why pick out the net for special attention?

P. Dalton, Christchurch