Most children banned from Net chatrooms

More than two-thirds of London parents have banned their children from internet chatrooms fearing they may be talking to paedophiles, a survey has revealed today.

Nevertheless, according to a second poll, a huge number of children are putting themselves in danger with illicit online activity.

One in five children aged between eight and 15 across the country have met up with someone first encountered online and a further one in 20 do so on a regular basis.

Alarmingly, only seven per cent of parents know their children are doing this.

When questioned, 67 per cent of parents in the capital said they barred their children from general chatrooms, 35 per cent from social networking sites such as MySpace and Bebo and 18 per cent from videobased networking sites such as YouTube.

Disturbingly, a quarter of those London parents surveyed did not ban their children from using sites that contained violence.

There has been an explosion of children using social networking internet sites at home without their parents' knowledge.

Several teenagers have run away this year with people they have met over the internet including Hannah Cooper, 13 who disappeared from her home in Tillingham, Essex in March. She was found with an 18-year-old Italian man who was eventually released without charge.

Online identity experts Garlik commissioned teenage community website Dubit to conduct research among 500 children aged between eight and 15 in March. Market researchers PCP interviewed 500 parents.

The Dubit report reveals that 40 per cent of young people regularly visit websites that are specifically prohibited by their parents and many hand out sensitive personal information without parental consent.

Details divulged include full name (30 per cent), home address (12 per cent), mobile phone number (20 per cent), home number (10 per cent), school details (46 per cent) and family photos (9 per cent). As a result, 11 per cent of young people had been "cyber-bullied" - intimidated via email or on chatrooms.

However, only half had spoken to their parents about their ordeals, with girls more likely to keep quiet.

While the majority of on-line activity undertaken includes playing games (74 per cent), researching homework (66 per cent) and chatting with friends (65 per cent), one in five talks with "friends" they have only met online and one in 20 meets strangers in person.

Tom Ilube, chief executive officer of Garlik, said: "Our research is a shocking wake-up call to all parents in the UK to sit down with their children and talk about how to keep safe online.

"The web is a wonderful place to explore but young people continue to make themselves vulnerable by not applying the same caution online as they would in person."

Mr Ilube continued: "It's important for parents to understand the risks their children could face when on the net and whether their children are behaving responsibly."

www.garlik.com.

How to keep your family safe

Keep internet-connected computers in a central and open location, particularly for younger children.

Talk to your children about their online activity. You should know everyone on their contact list.

For younger children, make sure you know all their passwords. Don't intrude, but let them know that you know, just in case.

Tell your children not to provide personal details online. No full names, addresses or telephone numbers.

Devise list of internet rules that you and your children agree to sign.