Taipei  - Taiwan's young are too sheltered, bemoans a member of Taiwanese government. One has to look no further than his son, who seems to think chickens have six legs, he says.

Speaking at a seminar on education, former education minister Tzeng Chih-lang, currently a minister without portfolio, bemoaned the fact that many Chinese youths spend their days sealed off from the real world, interacting with the outside almost exclusively via computer.

As an example, he pointed to his university-age son who, during a group project, designed an animated chicken with six legs - apparently under the mistaken assumption that real chickens have six legs because grocery stores sell drumsticks in packs of six.

"This is an example of what happens when our young people are obsessed with the virtual world. So it it the task of educators to pull them back into the real world," Tzeng said.

Tzeng's son reportedly flunked the assignment.(dpa)