Microsoft: The loveable software company

Children's charity the NSPCC is today to launch a revolutionary new online service aimed at providing secure, expert advice and counselling to children, with the backing of Microsoft.

Called there4me.com, the new service has been enabled by £200,000 funding by Microsoft, which has also donated all the software needed by the project.

Brendan Major, head of information services for the NSPCC, said the project was exciting for a number of reasons: "This is giving children in trouble direct access to counsellors both in an email and chat room type format. The guarantee of anonymity we give means many children will try the service who previously might not have dared."

Children can read biographies of each of the counsellors on site, and decide which person they want to speak to. The NSPCC envisages running the services with 15 dedicated counsellors. However, it said it is remaining flexible depending on the demand received for the service.

The NSPCC has been trialling the service in some parts of the country for the last 11 months, generating a good response, with 60 per cent of users new to the charity - children that perhaps otherwise would have had nowhere to turn.

Major said the NSPCC had to overcome a number of tricky problems in launching the service. Firstly, while the NSPCC wanted to be able to provide the services in a familiar format to users, traditional email and chatroom technology did not provide sufficient security for the applications.

The chatroom service had to be limited to a one-to-one discussion and be able to pass through school firewalls. None of the interactive services could risk leaving any information on the client PC.

This is to enable children to use the services safe in the knowledge their use can't be tracked by others sharing the same PC, particularly within a family environment.

Another challenge was that children said they needed a way to exit the service quickly, in case sessions were interrupted. Major said: "Children told us to put games on the site, so there would be a plausible reason for them to be there. But then they told us - they'd better not be crap games, otherwise it's just not plausible."

NSPCC worked with games-maker Paeony to make it more appealing to children.

Microsoft is a major corporate philanthropist and has won plaudits for its charity work. It already gives 10p to the NSPCC every time a worker leaves early, trying to avoid a culture of overwork in its offices.

However, the NSPCC's Major added he would be looking for sponsors for the site, as Microsoft is not funding the ongoing operations.

The service is available at http://www.there4me.com .