One in four children go offline to meet online 'friends'

Children are becoming bolder and putting themselves in danger by secretly meeting people they have met online, a Government report has found.

Children today are three times more likely to meet up with a stranger than they would have been two or three years ago, according to the the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) in its strategic overview of 2006 to 2007.

In its research, based on a sample of 6000 children aged between 11 and 16, the organisation found that a quarter had met someone in the real world after first contacting them online. This figure is three times higher than that found in a similar study carried out by the organisation two years ago.

Of those children who met up with a stranger, over a quarter did not take anyone with them. Of the three quarters who did take someone with them, four fifths took another child friend, which the organisation said "put them both in danger". Only six per cent took a parent, and two per cent took a trusted adult.

CEOP told Computeractive that the growth in children meeting with people had "probably come from the explosion in social networking sites over the past few years" and the fact that children were online a lot more.

A representative for the organisation said: "There is far more user generated content around now than there was two or three years ago and children are utilising Web 2.0 a lot more". She added that online activities such as using podcasting tools and posting user generated content online weren't as popular two years ago.

However, she said that these sites and tools were "not solely or necessarily " to blame for the increase in unsafe behaviour:

"Paedophiles go anywhere children go and are constantly using new technologies to interact with and groom children. They may meet these children on a social networking site but could then take them into private chat rooms where they can continue to groom them without the screening they would find on a site."

John Carr, secretary of the Children's Charities Coalition for Internet Safety, described the results as "astonishing and alarming", but agreed that social networking sites were not to blame.

"If you ask the police they will say that their main concern is still instant messaging as a child is on their own and can be more easily groomed," he told Computeractive.

His views were backed up by CEOP’s 2006 reporting figures, which showed that it received more than 1,400 reports from children saying that they have been groomed online. Of these, two out of three said that it happened in chatrooms or when using instant messaging.

Since then the organisation has worked with companies such as Microsoft, which makes the popular Windows Live! Messenger software, to put in place a symbol that can be clicked if a child feels uncomfortable. This takes them straight to the CEOP reporting site where they can cut and paste the conversation for CEOP trained staff to investigate and, if necessary, trace the person in question.

The organisation has now said that it wants this tool to be more visible on every site and is calling on the internet industry to help them make reporting easier. It feels that this will not only help to children keep safe, but also act as "deterrent" against paedophiles.

"We need to educate children on the availability of this logo and need these sites to help us do it. If it becomes widespread and is visible to paedophiles then they might think twice about entering these sites to groom children" said the CEOP representative.

Children are also advised by the organisation to refrain from putting too much personal information online.

Parents concerned about their children’s online behaviour are also advised by CEOP to visit its education website, which gives a range of hints and tips to keep their child safe online. This includes sitting down with a child to discuss the dangers of meeting people online and finding out who they are talking to.