Harry Potter novels as "subtle seductions" capable of corrupting young souls.

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Socrates in 399BC said much the same thing, complaining children no longer respected their elders. Two hundred years ago it was the romantic fantasies of the novel corrupting young minds. Coleridge was particularly appalled by its rise, warning young women about the effects of "novelism" on the brain. In 1930s Australia it was American comic books that were said to cause a rise in violent youth gangs.

And in the 1960s Sesame Street was the focus of a huge moral panic. Earnest psychologists were warning us that Cookie Monster and Big Bird would turn kids into zombies who "compulsively recited serial numbers and letters" and who "inspected their inanimate surroundings like restless, wound-up robots". The show also allegedly had a "psychedelic" editing style that would no doubt brainwash kids into experimenting with LSD.

And don't even get me started on the "longtime companions" Ernie and Bert. Thank goodness the well-known gay activist Tinky Winky, the handbag-carrying Tellytubby, was outed by the US Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell.

The fear of popular culture keeps echoing strongly today. The Pope condemned the Harry Potter novels as "subtle seductions" capable of corrupting young souls. Perhaps most depressingly of all, Madonna, who made her fortune by exposing her body, her sexuality, and her ongoing personal and spiritual journey (most often through television) does not let her kids watch TV.