The government's plans to monitor social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have prompted a furious reaction online.

There is already a new petition on No 10's website calling for the idea to be stopped.

Inevitably, a number of Facebook groups have also been formed to oppose the plans; the most active so far include "No to the government monitoring Facebook" and "Stop the British government from monitoring Facebook!"

The news emerged on the day that the government's plans were revealed to teach Twitter to primary schoolchildren. Mark Cridge merges the two stories in a spoof tweet: "Primary schools to monitor Facebook for the government via Twitter."

Others don't see the funny side. On the Politics website, Ian Dunt writes: "The government's approach to the issue of privacy is not unlike a rat hooked on heroin. It just can't get enough of our personal information."

Writing on the Whipped Senseless blog, Jason Brown, says 'Database Britain' has come closer to reality."

He points out that US army was reported to have prepared a paper which included a chapter called the Potential for the Terrorist Use of Twitter. The report, which reads like spoof, is available on the website of Federation of American Scientists.

It says:

"Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences. Extremist and terrorist use of Twitter could evolve over time to reflect tactics that are already evolving in use by hacktivists and activists for surveillance. This could theoretically be combined with targeting."

Is this rampant paranoia or is there a case for monitoring social networks?