Scot claims he's made networking child safe

The site, Dizeo, is aimed at children between the ages of eight and 13 and will be fully moderated with all postings checked before publication.

The new site has cost 70,000 to set up and has nine members of staff, based in Paisley, who check all messages, images and video to the site before they are published.

Its founder, Christopher Mccann, 20, who is studying for his masters degree in computer science at Strathclyde University, admits the initial costs of paying staff from 8am to midnight to check activity is expensive.

Users' parents will be asked to pay a small monthly fee to access the site, in return for assurance that their children will be safe online.

He said he created the site after controversy in recent months over youngsters being targeted by sex offenders online through other social networking sites.

He said: "I thought there was room for a social networking site specifically for children, where they could learn how to use such sites carefully.

"Everything is moderated so we see everything first, every post, so if a child offers to give someone their contact details, we can stop that and send them a message saying we don't think you should be doing that.

"And we can manage to do that in almost real time so we should be able to respond within 10 seconds.

"We can stop abusive messages, exchange of contact details and any arrangements to meet."

The site is aimed at 8 to 13-year-olds so he is not expecting that age group to be online post-midnight.

The site will also offer homework help with teachers online to offer advice.

Tracey Francis at Children in Scotland, said social networking on the internet had become a fundamental part of most people's social lives and it was important to protect youngsters from the dangers online.

She said: "For their own safety, and that of others, it's important that children and young people are made aware of how to behave responsibly on the internet, so they can enjoy the communication benefits of chatting online and reduce the risks as much as possible.

"Parents, teachers and other adults can all play their part in this - but it also needs the sites young people visit to take the issue seriously, and to encourage and support young people in behaving appropriately online."

NOT ALWAYS ON THE BUTTON

Social networking sites such as Facebook have no monitoring of content and allow free contact between users.

However, mounting pressure has grown on such sites to install a "panic button" which would allow users to report any messages or suspicious people to the site managers.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) persuaded other sites such as Bebo and MySpace to install the measure.

Eventually Facebook caved in and accepted that there was a need to introduce such a button.

However, none of the sites has every piece of content and contact monitored.