Online chat rooms were paedophiles hunt

Cyber chat rooms allow people of any age to enter into simultaneous conversations with others from anywhere in the world via personal computer.

According to the latest figures, one in five young people enter any number of the internet's 100,000 chat rooms with one in 10 going on to meet their cyber pals face-to-face.

But not being able to see who you talk to in cyber space has allowed paedophiles to pose as young boys and girls and enter teenage conversations.

A recent survey found a third of children were unaware of risks associated with meeting cyber mates face-to-face.

Rachel O'Connell from Cyberspace Research Unit said: "Most chat rooms ask for a user's age, sex and location. They try to join in on conversations and if one doesn't work out they can always move on to another."

Parents all too often allow their children onto the internet without suitable supervision and their children go on to secretly meet adults they met via the computer.

Last year, 45-year-old Mark Stephens, from Harlesden, admitted sexually attacking a 14-year-old girl he met in an internet chat room.

In another case, a girl of 13 from Milton Keynes agreed to meet an internet friend who claimed to be 17. Her mother kept watch and was horrified when he turned out to be in his forties. He was arrested, but freed because no crime was committed.

Last year, a West Sussex man was jailed for three years for kidnapping a girl he met via a teen chat room, and a 33-yearold London man was jailed after posing as a 15-year-old boy to lure a 13-year-old girl to his home. Anyone can get into a chat room simply by clicking on icons on their screen. It is then possible to choose your chat room according to the subject under discussion, go in and start chatting anonymously.

Some chat rooms charge for access but the vast majority are accessible free of charge through the computer program which is providing access to the internet.

Some computer programs which provide access to the internet offer parents the chance to restrict what their children will be allowed to see.

Websites and chat rooms can be classified by suitability for different age categories. The program will then deny access to those deemed unsuitable for children. But what all these precautions cannot prevent is an adult gaining access to a chat room intended for a child.

Tink Palmer from children's charity Barnardos said paedophiles win a child over by discussing pop and TV, and their own fake problems before offering to swap personal email addresses or mobile phone numbers.

Charities are lobbying the Government which is looking at making it an offence for adults to "groom" minors on the net.