The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) will bring together more than 100 public and private organizations to develop a national strategy on child safety on the web.
PM Gordon Brown said “Some people call the internet a slanging match without an umpire. The challenge for us is to make sure young people can use the internet safely and do so with the minimum of restrictions but the maximum of opportunities.”
It will look at introducing voluntary codes of practice for the industry and advise parents about “safe†settings on search engines and computer security controls.
Research by the child psychologist Dr Tanya Byron established that many families are struggling to overcome the “generational digital divideâ€. Her report, Safer Children in a Digital World, found that 57 per cent of parents do not know where to get information about how to protect their children online.