Privacy is a First World fancy

A good example of familiarity leading to greater acceptance is the changed community attitude towards homosexuals.

The courage displayed by some high-profile people to "come out" over the past decade or so seems to have blazed the trail for many previously closeted homosexuals to do likewise. This has resulted in a discernible dampening down of previously existing widespread homophobic attitudes.

Presently, a similar enlightenment seems to be occurring in the context of mental illness, especially depression. Not long ago, a similar process occurred in relation to HIV sufferers.

The only real culprit in the medical-records saga is not Channel 7 nor the clinic from where the records emanated. It is the AFL for persisting with its misguided policy of testing footballers for non-enhancing drugs.

If footballers want to party with party drugs that's their business and that of the criminal law. Their over-zealous employer has no role in monitoring activities which are not logically relevant to their performance on the football field.

But don't children look up to footballers? Perhaps, but their mistake shouldn't mean that footballers have higher levels of responsibility than other people in the community.

As for the AFL, it needs to stop being derelict in its approach to the drug issue and stop blaming others for inevitable problems that occur as a result of the persistence with a fundamentally flawed, overbearing policy.