This radical solution could benefit us all

The scheme for identifying children at risk of extremism highlights the continuing concern about the potential spread of radical ideology.

The reality, highlighted by several terrorist arrests and trials in recent years, is that some of those behind dangerous plots faced by this country have been radicalised in their teenage years.

This is partly because it is at school, as well as university, where young people form ideas about life and are potentially more receptive to radical ideologies of all types.

At the same time, as Jonathan Evans, the director-general of MI5 pointed out in a 2007 speech,
al Qaeda-inspired extremists are increasingly targeting school-age children.

Such worries have led to the creation of the Home Office's "Channel Project" under which more than 200 youngsters have been identified as potentially vulnerable and provided with help.

There is a risk that such schemes could lead to "labelling" some children as potential terrorists early in life.

But officials say initiatives such as Waltham Forest's are little different from programmes which seek to identify children at risk of other forms of criminality.

If dealt with sensitively, today's scheme could help to protect the children themselves, and society generally, from the consequences of terrorism.