Chat site asks parents to verify children's ages

A new social networking site sends parents an email when their child signs up to confirm that the child is under 18.

The creators believe that by getting parents involved, children will be able to communicate in a safe environment. They also hope it will stop paedophiles from accessing the site.

Anyone under the age of 18 can join Yoursphere. To do so, a child must first submit details such as their date of birth, address and their real name. If they have a national ID card number then they must also include this.

The child’s details are then checked using NetIDMe, a verification tool, and an email is sent to the parents asking for confirmation of the child’s age and also for the parents' credit card details, which are used to pay for a subscription to the site. This costs £3.50 per month or an annual £27.50 and is said to pay for the site’s safety systems.

Mary Kay Hoal, founder of Yoursphere, said: "Nothing is 100 per cent foolproof but we hope that by asking parents for credit card details and checking a child’s details that we can keep them safe while they are on the site."

To provide greater transparency for parents, the site has a Parent Dashboard, which lets them log onto their child’s profile, if they are under 13, and view all the content they have posted. If they are unhappy with anything they see they can remove it immediately.

A blocking tool also stops children aged 13 and under from becoming friends with anyone older than 14.

Children’s charity Beat Bullying constantly monitors the content to ensure that the child isn’t being bullied. There are also integrated buttons that enable users to report abuses to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and the NSPCC.

Yoursphere was created following research by the company, which found parents are much less cautious over who they allow their children to talk to on social networking websites than they are in the real world.

Of the 1,020 parents asked, 95 per cent said they would not want their children speaking to strangers in public. Despite this, 62 per cent admitted they were unaware of their child’s online contacts.

Half of the parents questioned could also not name the person their child chats to most on the internet.

Ms Hoal said: "It's clear from the research that parents take a huge interest in their child's safety, but they are possibly missing a trick when it comes to monitoring their online behaviour in the same way they take an interest in the real world."