Govt drive targets chatroom safety

The Government is this week launching a &£1.5m advertising campaign alerting children and parents to the dangers of online paedophiles.

National newspaper and magazine ads will encourage parents to “Wise up to the Net”. The aim is to educate parents about how to help their children enjoy Net chatrooms while avoiding exposure to inappropriate conversations or “grooming” approaches by paedophiles.

The campaign has attracted support from leading Internet companies, with Yahoo! UK & Ireland and MSN contributing free space on their websites for campaign ads and safety messages. A number of PC manufacturers, retailers and child protection organisations are offering sponsorship and active support.

A special booklet is available from a newly created website – www.wiseuptothenet.co.uk – and by freephone from UK Online.

“Paedophiles are dangerous – not Internet chatrooms,” says Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes, adding that the campaign is “not intended to alarm people”.

She continues: “We all need to ensure that taking sensible precautions to protect ourselves and our children online becomes as commonplace as it is to lock our doors or [in the case of children] not talk to strangers in the offline world. Parents and carers have a crucial role to play, regardless of their Internet experience or expertise.”

A second phase of the campaign, set to run early next year, will target young people through radio, cinema and youth magazine ads. It will encourage them to “Know the Net” and avoid putting themselves at risk by giving out personal details or phone numbers online.

Hughes adds: “While cases to date are very low in proportion to the rapidly growing rate of Internet use, there is a risk that Internet chat can be abused by a criminal minority to make contact with children with a view to developing a sexual relationship with them in the ‘real world’.”

With about 5 million children using the Internet in the UK, Net chat – the ability to hold typed “conversations” in real time – is becoming increasingly popular, with an estimated 100,000 chatrooms now available.

The ad campaign follows a recommendation by the Government’s Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet to raise public awareness of the activities of paedophiles in chatrooms and the “simple steps” users can take to protect themselves.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has appointed brand communications consultancy Bamber Forsyth to develop and redesign its core website. The brief is primarily to ensure that the DTI’s communications objectives are constantly monitored, and met by the website, and that the site meets all the information and navigational needs of its diverse audience. The DTI is conducting a review of all its activities, the results of which will have an impact on the website’s new design.