BAFFLEMENT has been the only reaction to the resignation last week of a vicar who kissed a schoolgirl on the forehead. No one could believe that the Rev Alan Barrett, a school governor who was helping out in a maths class, had anything but innocent intentions when he congratulated the girl for her successes in long division.

The police and church authorities found no evidence of wrongdoing. Yet Mr Barrett resigned as chairman of governors at the school because, he said, “one cannot be too careful these days”. He conceded that “even giving a child a kiss of congratulations is inappropriate in this day and age”. What a perverted state of affairs when a caring adult cannot show affection to a child.

But these are the refrains trotted out time and again to justify increasingly insane behaviour towards child protection. Parents hold back from taking photos of their children naked, not because they really think it is suspect, but because that’s what you have to do these days. Teaching unions advise against rubbing sun block into children’s noses, because you can’t be too careful, can you? Schools and voluntary groups advise against adults touching their charges in anything but the direst emergency.

Why are sensible adults behaving in such mad ways? Because to question the received wisdom is to mark yourself out — if not as a paedophile exactly, then certainly as somebody who is reckless about children’s welfare.

So instead we look at ourselves through the eyes of perverts. I’d bet that nobody in that classroom batted an eyelid when the vicar planted his kiss; there would have been no intake of breath, no shocked silence. Yet rather than stand by common sense, the church authorities conceded that a kiss could have “potentially damaging consequences”. People are sacrificing their better judgment about the meaning of their actions. We may all have the bathtime snaps from our childhood, but many believe that to take such pictures of their own children is just too risky.

Next time something like this happens, I hope no one resigns. We need to insist that an innocent gesture is just that. Panic about child protection does nothing to help children: how can nervous, distant adults, constantly worrying about how their behaviour could be misinterpreted, care for or inspire their pupils?