20 November,2009 08:21 AM IST | | Agencies
The US Postal Service has shut down a Santa Claus letter writing service over fears that paedophiles rather than elves might be gain access to the young correspondents.
Since the Operation Santa programme started in 1954, the service has been forwarding up to 150,000 letters addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole" to volunteers in the small Alaskan town of North Pole every year.
Replies come signed by a Santa elf and bear the all-important North Pole postmark.
However, concerns about the service were raised last year when a postal worker in Maryland recognised a volunteer in the state's Operation Santa letter service as a registered sex offender.
The service now prohibits volunteers from having access to children's family names and addresses.
