AS the mother of a 15-year-old daughter who is constantly glued to the internet I'm acutely aware of the dangers of online predators.
Parents are advised to cast a watchful eye over their child's shoulder while they're on the PC or laptop – but now many youngsters use their mobile phones, so it's impossible to see what's happening onscreen.
As soon as my daughter signed up to My Space, Bebo and then Facebook we drummed into her the importance of only 'talking' to people she knew – and hopefully three years later this has stuck.
There have been a few dodgy messages – which reassuringly she has run past us.
The minimum age limit for signing up to Facebook is 13 but we bowed to peer pressure and gave in when she was 11 – on the condition that she allowed us to be her 'friend'.
Some of her friends sent me and her dad friend requests – I accepted but it says a lot about our sad society that my husband didn't, since he felt uncomfortable about befriending teenage girls even if it was genuinely innocent.
On several occasions I was ticked off for being embarrassing and 'stalking' her friends after leaving witty comments on their statuses.
Now at 15, it's obviously hugely uncool to have your mum as a Facebook friend so I rarely comment.
I think it's important to talk to your children at an early age about the online danger of people who may not be what they seem.
After all, you'd warn them about stranger danger on the streets.