"We caught a paedophile online - Lyubo from Montana wants to have sex with a 14-year-old girl," the front-page headline of Bulgarian daily 24 Chasa read on October 23 2008.

"We caught him when we made a false profile of a 14-year-old girl which included provocative nude pictures," the article starts.

As part of what the daily said was an investigation, its journalists registered under a false name at the Bulgarian adult-dating site Gepime.com. The site markets itself with the slogan "Find a sex partner for tonight."

The journalists did not actually create a profile of a 14-year-old, because the site, like any other adult dating site, requires that users are adults. Instead, they registered as a 19-year-old, intending to reveal their "true age" in the course of communication with other users.

The article did not mention the name of the profile used by the journalists. It also did not say where the journalists got the "provocative nude pictures" of a 14-year-old girl from, which they say they posted online.

If the journalists actually had and did publish such pictures, they would have been guilty, by their own admission, of possession and distribution of child pornography.

If by now they have removed the picture and the profile from the website, they have destroyed what might be evidence, should "Lyubo" ever have to appear in court.

The real problem of course is not with one online user who claims to be a 40-year-old construction worker from Montana by the name of Lyubo and who has a special interest in nude pictures of teenage girls posted online.

Bulgaria's online world is littered with regular dating sites where the minimum age to register is often 12 and which are extremely popular with teenagers to swap pictures taken with their mobile phones.

In a society where "sex sells" has been re-defined as "anything you want to sell has to have a reference to sex" and where the norm in advertisement for many products is still a half-undressed pop-folk singer, that pictures posted online by real teenagers leave little if any room for imagination should not come as a surprise.

As The Sofia Echo's Nina Todorova recently reported, advertising associations in Bulgaria are beginning to realise that the European Parliament might follow its September 3 report on negative gender stereotyping in advertisement with new, stricter advertising regulation. Associations have started discussing the introduction of self regulation, but so far it is all talk.

In early October, bTV aired the documentary To the Teacher with Love, in which bTV reporter Stoyan Georgiev showed, what The Sofia Echo's Nick Iliev described as "the rampant disillusionment, chronic apathy, thorough disregard for teachers and the education system, along with the drugs, the violence, the disrespect for anything and anyone, the miserable pay, the disenfranchised children, the parents, arrogant and abusive of the teachers and the system, and the children, openly drinking alcohol, gambling, sexually groping one another, exposing themselves and using obscene language."

A little over a week later, the Education Ministry suggested it considered the introduction of a curfew for minors. The idea made headlines in local media for one day, hopefully never be heard of again.

That children merely copy and enact their understanding of the world of grown-ups that surrounds them, seems to elude those entrusted to run this country.

The paedophile witch-hunt that 24 Chasa indulged in this week is similar to media reports in 2007 in response to promotional videos for the film Bulgarian Baklava that had appeared online.

The story of Baklava was based on real-life experiences of children in an orphanage in Bourgas. Despite their support and cooperation during the production of the film, as soon as the row broke out, everyone from the director of the orphanage to ministries found it easier to blame the director and producer than to address issues that would actually improve the lives of the children.

The result was that the prosecution announced it would start an investigation against the film's director and producer on the grounds of child abuse and production of pornography. The film is being shown around the world, but not in Bulgaria.

In a recent television spot, celebrating Bulgaria's 100 years of independence, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev repeated over and over again as if it was a mantra, how Bulgaria's future depends on its children.

If the interest shown by government, the educational system, media and parents improving the lives of Bulgaria's children is anything to go by, that might turn out to be a very bleak future.

And this is one problem that will not go away by denying its existence.