Ten years ago hardly anyone had access to emails and mobile phones were playthings of the very rich - and the size of housebricks.

And the verb 'to text' simply did not exist in English or any other language.

Today there cannot be anything but a tiny minority of the population who don't use emails and texting comes quite naturally, at least to everyone under 25.

And because texting is so popular with teenagers, and enables "conversations" to be carried out with a strong degree of privacy and anonymity, it is an ideal medium for coaxing troubled adolescents to talk about their problems and give professionals a chance to tackle and resolve them.

That's why it is perhaps not too surprising that the newly launched service in which pupils in Blackburn with Darwen can text school nurses is already proving successful for youngsters who would be too shy to submit themselves to a face-to-face conversation.

Subjects raised by text have included bullying and worries about sight and hearing.

Hopefully this initiative will now be extended to other areas where there is a need to break down communication barriers with teenagers who are suffering at a time in their lives when they find many problems extremely difficult to talk about.