"PHANTOMS" who trawl the internet are the greatest threat to our children, says best-selling author Jilliane Hoffman.

Ed: Oh, really? In the United States, 6,466 children (0-18) were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2000. In that same year, 1,236 children (0-18) died from drowning, 1,946 children died in fires, 842 accidentally suffocated. 1,621 teenage Americans committed suicide in the United States in 2000.

Sports and recreational activities contribute to approximately 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries among American children and adolescents.

And yet, somehow, none of those terrible accidental deaths, suicides or injuries suffered by children are, shall we say, as "sexy" -or even terribly interesting-to you or your readers- as a good old fashion "Phantom Pervert".

I would also like to add that, having your children arrested, prosecuted and made to register as sex offenders, is at least as great of a statistical danger to them as "the Typing Phantom".

And yet, despite all the myriad information available to you to the contrary, you persist in claiming that the worst threat to children (or adolescents, although you are probably disinclined to make such a distinction) is a "typing" bogeyman "tap-tapping" away somewhere on the Internet. The thing that really frightens me is that there are undoubtedly plenty of people who believe you.

But do you really believe it yourself? Or perhaps you're really just trying to sell your alarmist (and not very original or inspired) book which is nothing more than reheated and hysterical drivel. I know, I downloaded the first two "free" chapters from your website and tried to read it. Yech!

By the way, you do look like the female prosecutor you once were. It's the absence of a soul - a dead giveaway.

Read the hysteria here: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2847035/Jilliane-Hoffman-warns-of-paedos-online.html#ixzz0fDk5BjvC