THE last five years really have seen the explosion of social networking.

Mark Zuckerburg started a revolution when he founded Facebook. More recently, Twitter has entered the fray. Despite technically being middle aged and with the IT skills of a kindergarten child, I have bought into these digital concepts. I like the instant rolling opinion of Twitter. The skill of making a worthwhile point in under 150 characters is something I have yet to master but I am spending increasing time reading other people’s nuggets. To me, Twitter is the 21st century equivalent of the mouthy bloke down the local pub. You can say what you like within reason. There is always someone who will disagree but there’s a much slighter risk of taking one on the chin for your rantings.

One of my favourite ‘twits’ is Katie Hopkins, the almost-apprentice from the BBC series. She is loud, opinionated and hugely right-wing. She has a slot on This Morning where she spouts her extreme views. (In)Famous for announcing that she would never let her offspring play with children with names like Tyler and Chantelle, she has 64,000 people actively seeking out her daily dose of vileness. This girl has an opinion on anything. That is exactly what I love about her. I may not agree with her on many things. I don’t care who my children play with. In fact I would probably encourage them away from Tarquin and Jemima. I do think children who are privately educated are privileged. However, I love the fact that she has the strength of personality to shout about what she believes in, and that is the great thing about Twitter. If I am offended by her opinions, I don't have to read them.

Today the Twittersphere has been full of debate on childhood obesity, and I have found that I finally share an opinion with Katie Hopkins. Should children be told if they are overweight? OF COURSE THEY SHOULD. One in 10 children starting school is overweight. We are becoming numbed to statistics like this. Eight out of 10 of these kids will go on to be obese adults, probably suffering from diabetes, heart disease and with a hugely increased risk of stroke and premature death. Surely it is time to stop worrying about upsetting these children and the parents that have allowed them to be overweight?

Apparently health visitors are having to educate parents that blending up KFC is not an acceptable way to feed your baby and that fruit pastilles do not count as one of your five a day. Really? We are bombarded daily by messages about healthy eating so why are so many people not getting the message?

In my job, there is the occasional child I see with rampant tooth decay and often these children are under 10. This sort of decay isn’t caused by occasionally letting your child go to bed without brushing their teeth or having the odd tube of Smarties. Gross decay is caused by allowing children to eat and drink copious amounts of sugary food and drinks. Note the word ‘allowing’. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most young children eat what they are given and have a diet dictated by parents. How often I have heard the phrase, ‘See, I told you not to eat all those sweets.’ Surely parents need to take responsibility for their children’s diets?

Children that are overweight are often the butt of playground jokes. In my opinion, much better to educate a child and his parents at an early stage than leave that child open to psychological issues around weight as they get older. It's not about how you look, it's about how you live. We all hear the messages, prevention is always better than cure. Feed your children good healthy food. Make them exercise and encourage them to take responsibility for choices from an early age. You don't have to be Einstein to work that one out.

Take a good hard look at your children and if they look fat do something about it. If you don't tell them, you can be sure that someone else’s child will soon be making it clear to them. That’s if they don’t read about it on Twitter first.