Advice for Adults, Child Protection

Social networking
Some adults use social networking sites to identify and target children for abuse. They'll try to get a child's mobile phone number so that they can contact them directly. And eventually they may try to get the child to meet them. This is called 'grooming' and it's an offence. So if you suspect that a child is being groomed, please contact the Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre (CEOP) at http://www.ceop.gov.uk/. It's dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children.

• Tell them not to give out personal information or their mobile phone number to strangers (including people they think they know because they've talked to them in chat rooms!)
• Talk to your child about the sort of messages they're sending and receiving. Make sure they're suitable
• Teach your child about staying safe online, in the same way you'd teach them about road safety or not talking to strangers in the park or the street

For more parental safety tips, go to Childnet at http: http://www.childnet-int.org/.

Internet Watch Foundation
At FREEDOM4, we recommend the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). This is the only independent internet 'hotline' in the UK for reporting potentially illegal content online. They specifically work to remove the following content from the web:

• Child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world
• Criminally obscene content hosted in the UK
• Incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK

If you want details about what's illegal and what's not, go to www.iwf.org.uk. And if you see anything online that you feel fits into the above categories, you should report it to the IWF by going to www.iwf.org.uk. Action can then be taken to have the content removed. Your reports to the hotline are confidential and may help to trace and rescue a young victim from further abuse.

Locating mobiles

When a mobile is switched on, it sends information about its location to the network it's registered to (i.e. FREEDOM4). This information is sometimes used by 'location based services' which enable mobiles to be tracked and their location identified. Along with other UK mobile operators, we've agreed to a code that aims to minimise the potential misuse of these services. If you're with FREEDOM4, you can't currently be located using these services because we don't provide location data to third parties. And nobody is allowed to locate anyone under 18 without permission from the child's parent or guardian.