There are nearly 12,000 examples of names being used in this way, from Pokemon and the Mr Men to characters from Toy Story . Lorraine and daughter Alycia. Research shows one in seven parents have no idea what their children are looking at. A generation ago it was very different, says Lorraine. My parents might have had no idea what I got up to in my bedroom, but they didn t have to worry about some paedophile having access to me via a computer.
Chatrooms make it easy for perverts to strike up friendships with unwitting kids.
To use the phone, you have to know a person s name, but in a chatroom you re immediately connected to complete strangers. One in five children using computer chatrooms has been approached over the Internet by paedophiles. Teenagers are curious and may be enticed to meet people on their own without their parents, which is when all kind of problems can occur. Some people argue that only 21 per cent of people in the UK may be online, so it s not a big problem. Lorraine s answer is, There are five million children online, of which at least 1.1 million are using chatrooms.