The Government has just launched a £1 million advertising campaign on how to keep children safe while they are in chatrooms online. As they are a haven for paedophiles masquerading as youngsters, the benefits of making friends over the Internet can quickly be erased by a bad experience. A little research can go a long way to keeping your children safe and the Internet offers many informative sites.

However, the solutions to this growing problem begin at home. Simple things like keeping the computer in the living room where parents are around when children are online, advising children to never give out personal details, having a second e-mail address to use (which does not include the child's name) when chatting', and discouraging face-to-face meetings unless a parent is present are just a few. But the internet itself can be your best friend for advice on this matter.

Start with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). A safer surfing section is one of the top links on BT's Internet site at www.btinternet.com. It offers information on e-mail and pc protection, explains safer surfing and parental controls, and an update on BT's new Child Protection web filtering service to be launched soon. Each item offers you a chance to download a printed guide. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

AOL, which heavily advertises its services and the parent control component, didn't offer a quick link to advice for parents online (www.aol.com). After a fair amount of time surfing their site, I couldn't find anything specific. Yet, it is one of the top recommended sites for children. The next version (8), according to our systems technician, will have a control for spam' - unwanted (often rude) e-mails, which will be a huge benefit. No doubt this will be available on most ISPs as it has become the latest nuisance' online.

At Freeserve, www.freeserve.co.uk, once you are in the chat room area there are several advice centres to link into. Once you get into the advice for parents section, you can choose from setting up content filters to having a net nanny'. You can arm yourself with a variety of knowledge to prepare yourself for this challenge.

Going right to the heart of the matter, a search for child protection sites turned up some gems.

The colourful www.chatdanger.com is a flashy site dedicated to this issue. It has a parents guide, basic technical guide, what you and your children should or should not do in a chat room, tips and information for schools and general users. Under the news section it includes helpful articles and interviews.

The international site www.childnet-int.org is produced by the charity Childnet. It has a link to the charity's child-oriented site www.kidsmart.org.uk. This site has a wealth of information on safe surfing for children, parents, teachers, librarians just about anyone using or advising on internet use.

Safety on the net does begin at home. It is important to know what is out there and how to deal with it. And, the villain (the Internet) is also the hero - providing excellent information for everyone. Surf safe.

l If you have found helpful sites on this topic please e-mail us at digital.media@kendal.newsquest.co.uk.

Site of the Week: The Thames Valley police site, at www.thamesvalley.police.uk/chatsafe/young.htm has a hi-tech site with easy to use multi-media resources. It offers a video you can view to explain how easy it is for children to dragged into an unsafe situation online. There's a chat-safe six point screen saver to download a good reminder. It also has some excellent links.

January 9, 2003 11:00