Thursday 6 December 2007

Register now to understand what your child is doing online

UK Centre dedicated to tackling child sex abuse launches christmas campaign specifically for parents

One thing is not on the minds of parents this Christmas. As their children unwrap the latest technology, the UK’s dedicated organisation for tackling the sexual abuse of children – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre – is taking the unprecedented step of asking parents to register for updates that will through the year help to keep their children safe from online predators.

From today, parents can log on at thinkuknow.co.uk and start to receive regular updates that cover all aspects of what children are doing online: from running through some of the terminology being used to a guide to types of behaviour that children make start to show if they are being targeted by online sex offenders.

Over the months all areas of concern will be demystified – from social networking to virtual worlds and more traditional chat environments – with emails that will often take parents, guardians and carers through a step-by-step guide that in turn will help them talk with and work with their children to make the online experience safer and free from abuse.

Jim Gamble is head of the CEOP Centre and, commenting on the launch today, was quick to point out why he is encouraging all parents to register. Speaking at a national conference of education experts looking at online safety, Mr Gamble said:

No one wants to think about child safety at Christmas. But as the months roll on and your children get more and involved in the online world – a world that is often opened up around Christmas with gifts that provide access to online gaming and so on – it is vital that we work to fill the knowledge gap that often exists between parents and what their children are doing online.

In the last 18 months we have spoken to over 1.1 million children through our Thinkuknow programme that has been delivered in schools up and down the country and we see all the time just how much children are pushing back the boundaries. We see how they are embracing the new online opportunities that are out there and we hear at first hand about just how integral to their lives the virtual world has now become.

But where children go then child sex predators follow. That is a fact. So we are not saying to parents live in fear or hold your child back from the opportunities that modern technologies provide. In fact we are saying quite the opposite: embrace these opportunities, get your children online and ask them to show you what the virtual world means to them. Encourage them to enjoy it but do so with the same degree of caution as you would apply in the real world.

So register now and take that sensible step; start to work with us in demystifying just what your children are doing online. Together I am convinced that as this programme develops we will all be empowering our children to stay safer online and saying to sex offenders everywhere – enough is enough.

Organisations such as Ofsted, SERCO, Microsoft, the NSPCC and many more are already getting their staff on board by encouraging parents to register for the new service.

Visit www.thinkuknow.co.uk and register to help keep children and young people safe from online offenders.

Notes to Editors

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is a law enforcement agency and works in both online and offline environments. Full information on all areas of work as well as online safety messages and access to online reporting can be found at www.ceop.gov.uk or for children at www.thinkuknow.co.uk.

For further information please contact Miriam Rich, Vicky Gillings or Clive Michel at the CEOP Centre press office on 0870 000 3434.

CHILD ABUSE IMAGES, NOT ‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’

Use of the phrase ‘child pornography’ actually works to the advantage of child sex abusers:

Every photograph captures an actual situation where a child has been abused. This is not pornography.

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