Research has revealed that more and more children are getting involved in the occult due to the wealth of information now available on the internet.
According to a recent report by MORI, more than 50 per cent of children have some interest in the occult, and at least 15 per cent of these have expressed some concern over the information they have discovered on the internet.
The biggest worry seems to lie with the high number of cults and Satanist groups whose popularity seems to have spread over the net, rather than genuine alternative religion and recognised esoteric communities.
According to a report in The Times, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has called for greater education about the occult and supervision of teenagers using the internet.
According to Peter Smith, general secretary of the ATL, "This goes beyond reading a Harry Potter story. This represents an extremely worrying trend among young people.
"Parents and teachers should educate children and young people about the dangers of dabbling in the occult before they become too deeply involved."
Apparently some of the sites accessed by teenagers "describe in lurid detail how they should drink blood or carry out blood-letting to seal their pact with Satan. They also encourage impressionable teenagers to join in chat rooms to express how miserable they are."
So, nothing like normal teen angst at all then. Next they'll be wearing all black and listening to the Cure.
The Teachers Association warned parents and schools not to simply rely on filtering systems to block out the unsavoury sites, but instead to supervise net usage more.
According to research, there are currently over 1000 cults in the UK, with many readily accessible through the net.