Children warned over ‘Facebook friend’ stalkers

OFFICIALS have launched an internet safety programme after finding that primary-age children were making themselves vulnerable on Facebook to cyberspace stalkers.

Organisers of an online safety event in the Highlands were shocked to learn that more than 90 per cent of the 2,500 primary 7 pupils taking part had at least one Facebook account, while some had several.

They found that competition among youngsters to accumulate the most “friends” meant they were giving vital access and information to many people they did not know. One 11-year-old girl had 500 “friends”, but admitted she did not know half of them and many were male account holders.

Council chiefs and computer safety experts have now set up a four-year programme to protect thousands of schoolchildren from the threat posed by internet “groomers”.

The figures came to light during an annual “Safe Highlanders” event attended by a number of agencies, including police and Action for Children, which focused on internet safety.

The Highland E-Safety Group has now developed “Becky’s Room”, a mock-up of a young girl’s bedroom where children are asked to find clues to her identity and age such as school uniform, favourite bands or mobile phone number, as if a stranger was searching through her personal belongings.

They are then shown a fake online profile which demonstrates that similar information can be readily available to social network users.

The format, including tips on how to protect online information, has been shortlisted for a council quality award and been requested for use by other local authorities across Scotland.

A Highland Council spokesman said: “The project had a big impact on the kids. It has made them more aware of the dangers of being online and understanding that people may not be who they say they are or the age they say they are. The feedback has been very positive and made young people more aware of the risks.”

The computer giant Fujitsu has also been involved in providing safety advice to pupils as part of its work with the council.

Brodie Shepherd, Fujitsu’s Scotland director for the public sector, said: “What many parents and guardians probably don’t realise is how innocent information used by their children on social media websites, such as Facebook can be used by internet stalkers.

“We had nine members of staff delivering internet safety advice during 100 hours of guidance sessions with over 2,500 pupils, and we were surprised to learn that the vast majority already have Facebook accounts.

“A great number of them also admitted to accepting ‘friend requests’ from people they didn’t know, so it was clearly vital that they learn how serious the dangers of not protecting themselves can be.

“Information freely traded included where these young people might be meeting up socially, and what schools they go to. When you consider that lots of the ‘friends’ reading all of this information are actually unknown to many of these young people, the dangers become obvious.”

He added: “This programme, implemented by The Highland Council, is an excellent attempt to better safeguard children and make it more difficult for internet ‘groomers’ to approach them.”

Fujitsu has committed to supporting the project for at least another four years by which time at least 10,000 children will have received the advice.

Becky’s Room complements advice on internet safety for eight to 11-year-olds provided by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP), the UK’s national centre for child protection.

A CEOP spokesman said he was not surprised that 11-year-olds were regularly on social networking sites and said children as young as four are using them.

“Children want to be part of a peer group online as well as offline. They want to be popular and have a lot of friends,” he said. “We want them to be aware of the opportunities online, but also the dangers, and we applaud any initiative that helps protect their safety.”

According to CEOP, the number of children in the UK subject to safeguarding or protection activity as a result of CEOP activity rose from 76 in 2006-7 to 414 last year.

The number of suspects arrested as a result of investigative and intelligence work increased from 83 in 2006-2007 to 513 last year.