It is great to see the work being carried out across the world on days such as this, enabling children to have a safer and more enjoyable use of the Internet. As more and more people join the world wide web, more and more it reflects the lives of its users. Unfortunately it also reflects the dangers.

As a creative space the Internet is fantastic but the digital world sometimes moves faster than the older generations can cope with. Although as professionals a lot of people can influence children in their use of the Internet it is likely the biggest influence will still be parents. Those parents amongst us will inculcate their children with 'stranger danger' in the real world and virtual world but how many of the general populace do this? Without the support of parents a lot of good work with children can be lost.

The South West Grid for Learning (a non profit making trust) have an ambitious target to reach every parent of every school child in the South West of England with an Internet Safety talk at least once a year. Incorporating a Police input the intention is to build the confidence of parents to enable them to start a dialogue with their children and begin their own Internet journey. The talk will also explain the potential dangers and provide some coping mechanism to those confused by the digital world of palm tops, Ipods, Podcasts and wifi enabled phones.

My question is..... does anyone know of any good practice, ideas or thoughts on how to entice more parents into the digital world through schemes such as this? I know that many of the parents that attend our sessions are those that have already engaged or intend to engage in their childs safety on line. It is those that do not see the electronic babysitter and open access to the web in the bedroom of younger children and other inappropriate usage as a problem.

This is of course not the only issue, I have not seen any other postings yet and look forward to seeing new ideas. It will be great if this forum enlarges the dialogue and opens minds to good practices in keeping our children safe. Thanks for your time in reading this.

Pc Alan Earl - Avon and Somerset Police.