The killing of a young man in Coolock, Dublin. The threat to the children of Washington by a renegade sniper. The sexual abuse of children by members of the Catholic clergy and the subsequent cover-up by the church. Are our children more unsafe than ever?

Has there ever been a more dangerous time to be a child? Historically, yes, but the perception of danger for children has never been more intense.

Childhood itself seems under threat from paedophiles, including those within the Catholic Church, from the Washington sniper and - most frightening of all - from other children willing to kill for a mobile phone. And while parents have never been more aware of the preciousness of childhood, we are constantly being undermined by factors outside our control.

"Children are not safe anywhere, at any time." Those eight words issued by the serial sniper in the suburbs of Washington DC have been enough for me to make sure that the radio and TV are not on when my children are in the house. A child will interpret these words in personal ways, unable to understand the context. They will interpret it to mean that they are not safe in their own bedrooms wherever they happen to be in the global village.

It doesn't help that my 12-year-old sister - their aunt - lives 15 miles from one of the latest shootings.

In our own community, the killing of 17-year-old Alan Higgins, apparently for his mobile phone, has stunned parents. While no one has stated it overtly, parents are quietly fearing that it isn't only in the US that "no child is safe anywhere, at any time."

Teenagers in Ireland have had a remarkable degree of freedom to pursue leisure activities in public spaces, such as cinemas, restaurants and, it has to be said, pubs. A relatively high rate of abuse of drugs and alcohol have gone with that, but at the same time we have believed that a top class, well-behaved student like Alan Higgins could go to the cinema without a risk to his life.

A lack of safe, organised facilities for teenagers has given parents no choice but to allow their children to use public facilities with no more protection than adults have. Many parents are now questioning such freedom, because in a changing Ireland we can no longer rely on social values of right and wrong to inhibit destructive behaviour.

And, simultaneously with these events, we have again been reminded of the betrayal of the Catholic Church, which protected child rapists at the expense of protecting their victims. The institution that many of us trusted to provide moral leadership has failed us. As one victim put it: "I trusted my parents and the parents trusted the Church, so I went with (the priest)". This trust is broken and we now stand in judgment of the Church, as our Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, questions Vatican Law and the excuses it has made in behalf of paedophiles.

In the same week that these issues arose in the media, we learned that one in six school children is bullied. So, tell us, where is it safe to be a child? We've had the rug pulled out from under us - parents and children alike.

Like parents in the US, it is tempting for us to lock the doors and become isolationist. Maybe that's not a bad thing. As parents, we have held too much trust in institutions - and that includes the global Hollywood machine as much as the Catholic Church. For the sake of our children, we need to question our own fundamental values and we need to ask ourselves if the institutions in which we trust are supporting those values.

It is harder for most of us to turn off the TV than it is to stop going to Mass. TV, our new religion, has conditioned many of our most vulnerable children to be insensitive to violence, while reinforcing reverence of money and possessions.

Hundreds of psychological studies have linked TV and film violence with violent behaviour in young people. The message for our children is that human life is cheap.

The message from the Catholic Church was the same when it moved abusing priests from one geographical location to another, as if the slate could be wiped clean. The church believed that the priest came first, and children were expendable.

That is also what was so shocking and different about the killing of Alan Higgins. Traditionally in Ireland, young men have been at greatest risk of death by personal violence at the hands of other young men. However, usually there is drink involved, two or more young men get into a row, then somebody kicks in a head or pulls out a knife. This isn't to say that the victim was asking for it. Nobody asks to be killed, just as nobody asks to be raped. Usually, although it's no excuse, young men die as a result of getting involved in verbally abusive situations that lead to violence.

Alan Higgins, who had overcome heart problems and leukaemia, was mugged in cold blood.His murder brings together themes that have worried aware parents for the past few years. We are being forced to recognise that we have reared a generation on a diet of TV and cinema violence so that they have become desensitised to death.

In this climate, children with emotional and behavioural disorders (EBDs) have been largely ignored. One in 10 children has an EBD, and while most are not violent, such disorders can lead to dangerously aggressive behaviour, if children do not receive help.

Being exposed to TV violence makes such children even more likely to harm others. And most children don't get the help they need. As one service provider confided to me recently: "It is worse than it's ever been."

Parents may cry out for assistance - I'll never forget one father of a child with EBD calling me to plead: "Somebody help me before my son kills somebody." Yet as the recent report of the Clondalkin Partnership showed, there is little help for such children.

This leaves parents feeling isolated and vulnerable. Where do we turn? Who do we trust? That question is increasingly difficult to answer.