Culture Secretary Chris Smith has backed the sacking of Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon after he admitted taking cocaine.

Culture Secretary Chris Smith talks to BBC News Online

Speaking during an online chat with school pupils across Britain, he said he hoped others would learn from Mr Bacon's mistake.

Replying to a question from a 17-year-old pupil, he declared: "Sadly it's right that he went.

"He knows better than anyone now what a mistake he made. I hope everyone else learns not to do the same."

His comment came after he became one of the small band of ministers who have braved a cross examination by Internet users.

Change our lives

In an online link-up, which offered some 30,000 pupils aged eight and above the opportunity to question him live, he fielded questions on a wide range of subjects from the importance of new technologies to how he would celebrate the dawning of the millennium.

He said the Internet would "change all our lives. That is why the government is putting such emphasis on the national grid for learning."

He also slapped down a recent claim in a national newspaper that computer technology in schools was a waste of time.

"I did not see the article and I am glad I did not because it would have made my blood boil. It is vitally important for all our young people's sakes," he said.

Speaking to BBC News Online after his hour-long grilling, he expressed his enthusiasm for the medium.

"The wonderful thing about this technology is that you can have a sort of global town meeting because everyone who is logged in can see everything that everyone has been saying, and that is something you can't have with just a one-to-one telephone call or even a video conferencing facility."

Tune in

He added: "Yes, it's true that it takes a bit of time for people to type in their comments and sometimes, particularly if America is online, the lines are a bit slow to get up and running.

"But despite that, it does offer something different from any other form of communication."

He also insisted that government departments and ministers were going to have to become more tuned in to the new communication technologies.

"Increasingly government is going to have to recognise that a lot of modern communication is going to take place over the Internet and by e-mail and one of the things I am very keen on doing is making sure that government information is available.

"Each department has a Website, any material we put out for consultation is available on the Internet and we get comments coming in through that mechanism and the more government does of that the better."

He also said he wanted to see public libraries offering Internet facilities to those who could not afford to put the technology in their homes.

"I am passionate about making sure we get new technology, new ways of communicating information into the public library system because that is the place where everyone can have access to it.

"I see certainly for the next ten years or so the public library as being the place where the information haves and the information have nots come together," he said.