Children could be banned from flying drones under a Government crackdown which will force owners to sit safety tests before flying the devices. 

New rules unveiled by the Department for Transport today state that drones weighing over 250g will have to be registered before they are used, with their users also required to pass an exam on drone awareness.

According the the DfT safety tests will have to be undertaken by the person who bought the drone, leaving uncertainty over those bought as presents. 

In addition it said it will consider an age limit for people taking the test, meaning children may be banned from flying drones over the weight limit.

A number of drones available state that they are suitable for children over six years old.

The rules, which are still subject to consultation and are expected to be in place next year, will be enforced through tougher punishments for drone users who break the rules.

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The threat of hefty fines and prison sentences will be handed out to those who are caught using the flying machines to deliberately endanger people's lives, the DfT said. 

Transport Secretary Chris Graying said: "I think at the very least you should face a substantial fine in situations where you have  palpably endangered life then the courts should have the power to send you to prison.

Let’s be frank if you are knowingly flying a drone in the flight path of an aircraft just above a runway then you should face pretty serious consequences."

It comes amid soaring sales of drones and fears that people are flying them into “no-fly zones” surrounding airports and prisons. At present the maximum fine is £2,500, but this is set to increase.

But we think that if carried out for illegal purposes, they are hardly going to care about regulations.

Supposedly to combat this the DfT is planning to erect force fields around areas where drones could pose a high threat to safety or law enforcement.

But we think , just like the lies from the BBC about detector vans this is just fantasy.

Mr Grayling explained: "Basically it is an electronic signal, that effectively, the best way of comparing it is that you can jam a radio signal, you can jam a mobile phone and this effectively has the same effect that stops a drone moving to a particular place."

He added: "We are going to have a national registration scheme above a certain size so not the stuff that comes from a toy shop but once you get a drone above a certain scale it’s going to be on the national registration scheme so it can be tracked.

"So if a drone flies around an airport it will be possible pretty easily to find out who’s done it. And then we are going to have tough penalties for those who fly around airports. It is absolutely unacceptable for any drone to be hovering around the runway of an airport and so we will have a registration scheme so we know who you are and then you will be prosecuted."

More Drone Flight Footage