Clacton: School PC's web safety message (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Clacton: School PC's web safety message

2:35pm Monday 22nd December 2008

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A SCHOOL’S police officer has urged parents to take the lead in protecting their children from online dangers.

PC Alan Williams, who is based at Clacton County High School, has delivered a hard-hitting internet presentation to 1,200 students at the secondary school over the last 18 months.

He also put together a 90-minute presentation for parents after finding there was nothing being done in the area to educate parents.

The hard-hitting compilation was unsuitable for minors due to the very emotive way it highlights the risks, according to PC Williams.

He has vowed to continue to raise awareness about the issue despite being disappointed at the number of parents that attended workshops.

"I do have concerns at the lack of parents that show for these sessions aimed at protecting their children from online abuse,” said PC Williams.

“Until they see this they don't fully understand what the risks are - this is always being pointed out to me by parents who have seen it.

"Some of the advice I give to parents is basic stuff, such as show an interest in what your child does online, asking them to teach you about the applications they use, keeping the PC in a family room so they can be monitored and tell them not to give out personal information.”

PC Williams said the most important advice for parents is to keep communication with their children open so they can let them know if someone online makes them feel uncomfortable.

He added that social networking sites pay a big part in the presentation. It uses a recorded conversation from a chat room which appears to be an older person grooming a young person to highlight the dangers associated with using them.

PC Williams hopes to deliver the presentation to more parents and plans to speak with primary school headteachers in January.

PANEL PC Williams said he found some concerning statistics during research for the presentation: n One in five kids have been solicited sexually online n 76 per cent of parents do not have rules about what their kids cannot do on the computer n Nine out of 10 parents will never know that inappropriate contact has occurred.

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