Advice for parents on children and the internet

Worried parents will for the first time be given guidance on how to clamp down on what their children are accessing on the internet during special advice sessions being run by Shropshire Council.

The internet safety session for adults and children will take place in Albrighton on Monday. It aims to help parents monitor sites and content accessed by children or youngsters in their care.

It is the first in a series of sessions planned by Shropshire Council and Shropshire Youth Association.

The advice forum is targeted at anyone supervising youngsters with access to the internet and aims to prevent abuse and limit access to violence or pornography.

Adults will also be given help on how to monitor children using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, following widely-publicised cases of adults posing as teenagers to groom other youngsters.

The forum will give parents and guardians a brief overview of internet safety for children, as well as practical tips and advice.

It will last for an hour and include a presentation, advice on further support and an opportunity to ask questions to a panel of experts.

Flavia Humphreys, Shropshire Council Broadplaces co-ordinator, said: "Technology develops so quickly, that as a parent or carer it is really easy to feel left behind.

"The internet can be brilliant, but it can also make children vulnerable. We would particularly encourage those who do not know anything about computers to come along."

The Albrighton workshop will be held at The Red House starting at 2pm and finishing at 3pm. There will be sessions running in eight other locations around Shropshire during March and April. Some will be evening sessions to fit around parents who work during the day.

Anyone interested in attending sessions should contact Flavia Humphreys on (01743) 210311.

More information about internet safety can be found at www.thinkuknow.co.uk

By Brett Gibbons