Row over EU crayon law

A row has broken out over new EU data protection laws which also cover manually recorded data. The new regulations require all writing implements to produce indelible marks which last for a minimum of ten years, including crayons and felt-tip pens designed for children.

“All marks made by manual writing implements are data and as such should not be erasable,” said an EU spokesperson. “This proposal is simply a housekeeping measure to clarify the position of manually transcribed data marks previously known as writing.”

Daz Bright, leader of the newly formed Campaign for Real Crayons blasted the proposed laws as “senseless meddling gone mad in my opinion.”

“What about cases where kids draw rude words on another kid’s face?” Mr Bright demanded at an angry public meeting in Matlock, Derbyshire. “As parents know, this can happen so how are we supposed to wash it off if the stuff is totally undelible?”

When challenged to prove that this really is a significant problem, Mr Bright gave a personal example.

“My youngest, DK-Maxxi, recently came home with a very rude word scrawled on his face. I’d complain to human rights, but I’m sure it’s wasn’t one of the teachers even though little Maxxi can be a bit of a handful. But if kids in the playground do this kind of thing we can’t rub it off afterwards can we?”

Nobody from the EU was available for comment.