As Lorraine delved deeper, she learned her discovery of the seedier side of the Internet was no one-off. Children are being drawn to pornographic websites through toy brand names. Youngsters searching for their favourite characters find the words are linked to sites containing obscene materials. 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.