Parents considered pedophiles until proven otherwise?

That's what one local council in the UK is saying.  According to the Mail Online:

"Parents are being banned from playing with their children in council recreation areas because they have not been vetted by police. 

Mothers and fathers are being forced to watch their children from outside perimeter fences because of fears they could be paedophiles. 

Watford Council was branded a 'disgrace' yesterday after excluding parents from two fenced-off adventure playgrounds unless they first undergo criminal record checks"

Is this ridiculous, or what?

It gets better, though, as the Council says that it's just following Government regulations and that they have to enforce this policy.

I'm all for protecting children in our society.  And in this day and age, when young people disappear sometimes if they are unattended, I think parents should actually be going to the playground with their young children.  But that's what makes this policy even more stupid than it already seems.  If every child's parents are present (and the article says that parents are being forced to watch through the fences of these playgrounds because they can't be allowed in), then how is any potential pedophile going to be chatting up their kid anyway?  Besides which, most parents are good people, and even if a child is unattended, these parents will probably notice if any adult is spending an undue amount of time with another child.

I guess in a court of law, you can be "presumed innocent", but on a Council playground, you're presumed guilty?  What a bunch of bullshit.  But I guess, in a country with the most closed-circuit television cameras per capita in the world, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.  Slowly but surely, people's rights in raising their children are being taken away, in the "interests of the child."

When does it end?  What will be the tipping point before people say "no more?"