There is one thing that you can guarantee about an angry bull - there will be no shortage of people who just can't resist waving a red flag at it. Likewise, many passers-by have a compulsion to tease a savage dog that barks threateningly behind a fence. Before they do so the antagonists ought to make certain that the bulls and dogs can't possibly reach them and tear them to shreds.

It is not hard to accept the viewpoint of artists who have taken nude photographs of underage children and wish to display them. Artists are known for challenging the way that things are normally seen by humans, then presenting them in a different light. To an artist no subject is barred.

However, from the non-artists viewpoint, there is no subject whatsoever that absolutely must be explored and exhibited or else the sky will fall down.

Artists explore particular subjects by choice. They may call it inspiration, but the idea that personal preference plays no part in the flavour of their creative juices is a little hard to swallow.

Consequently, it is impossible to imagine why artists need to display nude kiddie photos. There is a myriad of other subjects available for them to indulge their creativity. Nude children as a topic crosses the border into dangerous territory of social, political and legal hypersensitivity.

When artists ignore that fact and wave their photographs tauntingly for all to see we are entitled to question exactly which art is being pursued. Is it the art of taking photographs or the art of thumbing one's nose at authority using photograpic artwork as a shield?

If it is the latter, when these brazen stirrers find themselves gored, bitten and slung in jail we can applaud them as performing artists who fell from the trapeze while attempting a feat that was just too daring.

We may not laud their photographic artistry with quite so much enthusiasm. Not because it isn't art, but because their pursuit of it as art irresponsibly confuses an issue that at this point in time requires total clarity in order to eradicate a social travesty.