I WAS going to write about the 2011 census this week – but then realised I hadn’t even gotten around to opening the envelope, let alone answer the questions inside.

Sorry to disappoint all you fans of civil disobedience, though – I can assure you this isn’t part of any protest. I’m just an incompetent when it comes to dealing with mail at home.

I have so much post at work and on my various email addresses, that letters just pile up unopened by the front door.

Like the rest of you out there, I have until April 6 to get my census form completed and sent.

But unlike some of you, I suspect, I have no real problem in declaring my information in this way.

Anyone who cherishes our nation’s history and heritage should want to take part in this exercise as fully as possible in order to inform the public of the future how we lived.

I did extensive research over many years to find out as much as I could about the Victorian family who lived in my former home.

The censuses from the 1800s were my biggest research weapons and provided a fascinating window into the past. I’d be a hypocrite if I denied future generations a similar insight.

But there’s a bigger issue. All of us rightly value our privacy, but data protection has gone far too far.

An internet generation has been spawned in which people believe anonymity for everything is their divine right. People feel they can say and do anything and don’t have to take any responsibility or any consequences.

They cry ‘freedom of speech’ and complain of censorship when their words are neutered. But with freedom comes responsibility, and we are now beginning to live in a faceless society where people hide behind their PCs and say and do whatever they like.

This obsessive anonymity is dehumanising. It destroys any real credibility for those who proudly attack all and sundry – but then don’t have the courage of their convictions to say who they really are.

Of course, anonymity is necessary in many cases, but it’s getting out of hand. Recently, our photographers have encountered a new approach from schools and parents. They allow our photos to be used in our print titles – but not on the web.

This, presumably, is to prevent the pictures falling into the wrong hands electronically, and there is a real fear of paedophiles. It’s a concern I sympathise with to a point, but it stops papers such as ours being able to archive your family pictures online; and it prevents you the reader from easily accessing and purchasing fantastic photos of your kids.

In my view, the worry has become disproportionate to the problem and is having a chilling effect on society.

Very soon if this continues, there will be no faces and no names of anyone in our publications – for fear of infringing someone’s civil liberties or giving an opportunity to a hypothetical criminal.

Free speech is all about living in an open society, so please help me and stem the tide of this obsession with hiding identities and censoring happy celebratory family pictures.

And fill in your census form as fully as you can – because someone will thank you for it in 100 years time.