They creep around in the dark spreading misery, rumour and secrets from inside Westminster.
Even so, paperboys and girls are hardly likely to pose a threat to national security.
One local council, however, thought it necessary to use swingeing anti-terror laws against them.
Cambridgeshire County Council used the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy on eight paperboys thought to be working without permits.
It sent undercover council officers to lurk outside a Spar in the village of Melbourn and take notes on the movements of the boys.
The evidence was used in a criminal prosecution of the shop's owners for employing five of the boys without the correct documentation.
Cambridgeshire's approach is just the latest example of local authorities using the RIPA for minor misdemeanours.
Such activities have been likened to those of the Stasi, the East German secret police.
A Cambridgeshire bylaw states that all paperboys must have a work permit issued by the council and signed by the child's employer, headteacher and parents.
Working children must also be over 13 and cannot start work until after 7am.
This week Cambridge Magistrates' Court was told that Dips Solanki, 42, and his wife Rashmi, 38, had failed to get the correct work permits for five paperboys.
Prosecutor Simon Reeve told the court that the couple ignored letters and visits from a child employment officer. He said that although eight applications for work permits had been sent to the children's school, only three were signed.
New Labour - "I want them all dead. I want their family's dead. I want their houses burnt to the ground. I want to go there in the middle of the night and piss on the ashes."
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