Our 12-year old some time ago asked: “Why does Trump want to build a wall? And what’s this thing about Panama?” I did not change the subject. I happen to think that parents should discuss politics with their kids. Now, I don’t mean gloating over the latest gossip or beating the tribal drums. Talking about politics with your children should be a little like talking with them about sex. You let their questions guide you, helping them to appreciate themselves and the difference in others.

Our three boys pick out fragments of politics-as-entertainment from the psychedelic mush that flows through the social media. They ask about Żonqor Point, immigrants, Isis. We try to help them understand the issues, to be concerned without becoming cynical.

What we wish for our kids is not blind allegiance to any one party, but for them to care, passionately, about how to improve the world they live in. Last year we had long discussions on the spring hunting referendum. And it was a proud moment when our two oldest boys, holding their first voting documents, joined my wife and I to walk down to the voting station together.

But there is another, darker, side to the involvement of children in politics. Children should not be involved at all, let alone smeared, by the toxic sludge that periodically oozes through the blogs on both margins of the political spectrum, as has happened earlier this year.

Perhaps in a country where privacy is at a premium, we are still intoxicated with the freedom of the internet. But it is now time to move on from our social media adolescence. We are hurting each other’s children.

Targeting children just to get at their politician parents is worse than schoolyard bullying. It is mafia tactics without the bullets

This is obscene even when we pretend that we are doing it just to highlight our target’s parenting choices, even when the children are young private citizens involved in silly behaviour. Targeting the children just to get at their politician parents is worse than schoolyard bullying. It is mafia tactics without the bullets. As always, the other started it, but both must stop. Now.

Of course, the misuse of children for political ends is not something new – thankfully the Brigata Laburista is now just a discordant echo of history. And I well remember the little girl coming on-stage to give Lawrence and Kate Gonzi a flower during the 2008 election campaign. I had felt uncomfortable then with the intentionally loaned imagery of freshness and innocence. That flower had well and truly wilted by 2013.

This misuse continued during the 2013 election. Both major parties made extensive use of children in their visuals, supremely indifferent to the exhortations of the Commissioner for Children who just a few months before had made recommendations on this issue. The current Commissioner, Pauline Miceli, has reiterated this position, but as yet it is still a cry in the desert.

The otherwise generally sound Draft National Children’s Policy that has just been published makes no mention of this issue. As the political parties start gearing up for the next election, perhaps it is not too early to ask the players to publicly commit themselves to keep children away from the political dirt. We need to convince our party candidates that we want this to stop, whatever shape it takes. Let’s urge them to voluntarily commit themselves, and to push their party machinery, to such a pledge. Let the parties agree to a common-sense approach. The blogs will follow.

Now that will give my boys a positive message about politics.

It was not about the Archbishop

I got a lot of feedback on my first article in this regular column two weeks ago about the Archbishop – thank you.

As with all good writing, (warning: tongue-in-cheek zone) some thought it was absolutely brilliant, others that it was unbearably insulting.

I thought that giving the name ‘GoMoRRA’ to a completely hypothetical government authority that tries to muzzle God and his Archbishop so as to continue devouring our environment unchecked, as well as references to Black Adder, Persons of Trust and St Augustine, would have made my abhorrence and real feelings sufficiently clear.

So, to clarify: the Archbishop was spot-on during his Independence Day homily this week. In a country awash with hubris, we need a voice of conscience that reminds us that we really ought to be melting down the Golden Calf.