The campaign will use national newspaper and magazine advertising to encourage parents to “wise up to the net” and help their children to enjoy internet chat while avoiding exposure to inappropriate conversations or “grooming” approaches by paedophiles.
The Home Office acknowledges that it is difficult to make an accurate assessment of the precise level of sexual approaches to children in chat rooms in the UK, since uniform crime figures do not as yet record a distinction between on-line and off-line cases. However, evidence from North America and the UK, provided by actual incidents and cases, show that such incidents are increasing. According to the Home Office, one estimate puts the number of abuse cases which have involved internet chat rooms currently coming before the UK courts at one per month.
Risk assessment studies have identified the most likely targets of grooming approaches as being teenagers, mainly girls, between the ages of 13 and 17. The number of known cases to date is currently very low in proportion to the rapidly growing rate of Internet use, and the danger of online solicitation by a stranger is thought to be relatively much lower than off-line risk from someone known to the victim.