AGENCIES in North Yorkshire have joined forces to launch a major e-safety campaign to tackle young people’s vulnerability online.

North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children’s Board and the NSPCC launched the campaign at the police headquarters at Newby Wiske this evening (Tuesday, February 10).

The campaign – launched to coincide with Safer Internet Day - aims to provide parents, carers, young people and schools with information and support on keeping safe online.

William Shaw, from the NSPCC and chair of the e-safety sub-group, said: “Keeping children safe online is one of the greatest child protection challenges of this generation.

“The internet offers a wealth of opportunity and potential but also contains risk. We know about these risks but children don’t always.”

According to Ofcom, use of tablets by children has tripled in 2013/14 and is now the most popular device for eight to 11-year-olds and more than six in ten 12 to 15-year-olds now own a smartphone.

In North Yorkshire, a survey carried out last year of 16,000 young people revealed 15 per cent had seen pictures, videos or games they found upsetting online and 35 per cent said they were “never” supervised when using the internet at home.

Detective Constable Lee Featherstone, from North Yorkshire Police, said: “I work in the public protection unit and we deal with the people that have been convicted of internet sexual offences and child sex offences and we see the end product.

“We’re trying to go back right to the start and look at how we can have an impact before it happens.”

Professor Nick Frost, the independent chair of the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board, said they consulted with children from across the county who told them they wanted e-safety sessions from other young people nearer their own age on issues.

He said they have produced an interactive play to deliver to schools which will look at issues such as social networking and how things can potentially escalate out of control.

DC Featherstone said they were also encouraging parents to join their children online and download apps that their children maybe using such as Snapchat as well as drawing up family IT agreements which set parameters for internet use.

But he said they also wanted to encourage children to be aware of dangers themselves: “We want to influence some of the young people to think about their behaviour online and think before posting or sexting and get them to not do it.

“Children will always experiment but if we can try and intervene at the earliest point it will prevent things happening further down the line.”

He added: “It’s also about children realising there are boundaries and consequences. Sending someone an image of themselves may be seen as a laugh or joke, but it could be extremely embarrassing or something they have to live with for the rest of their lives. Once that’s image is online it’s virtually impossible to remove.”

Visit; www.safeguardingchildren.co.uk/esafety4parents.html to view and download the advice booklet.