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Panorama - One Click From Danger

The Panorama current affairs program in the UK is tonight highlighting some of the dangers faced by young people online. In particular they are concentrating on the dangers poised by sexual predators who are using the social networking websites to groom young children for sex. I think it's excellent that such a main stream program is taking a slot on prime time television to publicise these dangers.

Whilst writing ICU the thing that annoyed me more than anything was the group of parents that insist that these groomers don't exist and that it's all nothing more than scaremongering. "Doesn't happen", "Not my kids", "My children are far too clever for that", "Yeah but how common is it really?", were things I heard over and over. The simple fact is that if your child has an open profile on a social network then the chances are that at least 1 person who has made contact or added them as friends will have an ulterior motive. Sounds scary I know but by using the internet your children become accessible to an entire world of sickos, not just that live near by.

Panorama tend to be in depth investigations that carry some weight, with any luck it will be enough to make more parents think about getting involved in what their kids are doing online.

Panorama, tonight (7th January) BBC1, 8:30pm

You can watch the whole Panorama - One Click From Danger program online. Just follow the link to the first of 4 parts. Panorama - One Click From Danger