I am not completely convinced by the argument that if children see something violent on television they will copy it, but I am always amazed at how much influence some programmes have over my young son.

I do try to vet what he sees, but I am growing increasingly frustrated with programmes, supposedly made for children, which are unnecessarily violent.

Jetix is the Sky channel permanently stuck on our television – the programmes which have captured my son's imagination the most are Power Rangers Operation Overdrive and Ninja Storm.

On these shows scary aliens/monsters which live in parallel universes try to destroy the Rangers and subsequently lead the world into the "dark ways". This involves many fight scenes in which, despite being repeatedly blown up and smashed over the head with ferocious looking weapons, our heroes walk away unscathed.

Consequently, my son thinks people are invincible – which is not particularly healthy.

Then there are the movies which, although heavily promoted on channels watched by younger viewers, are completely unsuitable for under 12s. I am thinking in particular of the Marvel comic book heroes, namely Spider-man, The Hulk, Iron Man and the X-Men. All these films have been given 12 certificates and are incredibly violent, yet my young son loves the cartoons and desperately wants to see the movies.

Last week my husband and I got the Transformers film out on DVD to see if it was suitable for Samuel to watch. Well, it isn't. This is not because of the fight scenes, which although plentiful are not too horrific, it is because of the swearing. If the characters didn't use such profanities, the film would be enjoyable family fun.

So, I would like to ask, why do the film makers think it is necessary to include such language – does it add anything to the storyline? No. Of course it doesn't.

Rather shockingly we recorded Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban the other day on Sky Plus. We had just seen the first Harry Potter movie on DVD and really enjoyed it. I, rather stupidly thought all the Harry Potter films were a PG rating, particularly as the books are written for children, so allowed Samuel to watch this third film in the series.

Not only does one of the characters swear several times, the scene where Voldermort comes back to life is terrifying. Our young son will now not go to the toilet on his own in case there is a wizard behind the door, and is dreaming of witches jumping out of his bedroom cupboard.

Although I do not think these films will scar him for life, I do think the film makers should be a bit more responsible.

I know it is up to us parents to say "No" to our children but it would be nice if Hollywood could help make this just a bit easier.