Safe surfing for kids launched

Education groups around Europe have launched a website promoting the safe use of the internet for children.

Concerns in recent years about internet chatroom paedophiles, and also about children accessing inappropriate material, have led to the launch of the service, developed by education authorities in Iceland, the Netherlands, Scotland and Spain.

Besafeonline.org includes information on software that parents can use to protect their children more effectively online. It also includes tips on blocking access to websites and advice on how to use chatrooms safely.

The site is aimed to educate parents on what their tech-savvy children may be getting up to - or exposed to - while online.

Eleanor Coner of the Scottish Parent Teacher Association told the BBC: "With so many scare stories in the press the reaction of some parents is not to let children use the internet at all [but] we teach our children to cross the road, even though it might be busy, so we decided to come up with a green cross code for the super highway."