The Internet - advice for parents

Shevaun Pennington is thought to be in Paris

The case of missing 12-year-old Shevaun Pennington and a 31-year-old American has highlighted the potential dangers of the internet for young people.

It's thought children aged 10 to 18 are online for an average of three and a quarter hours a week - and almost two thirds of the time is unsupervised.

A study found that more than two thirds of children knew more about computers than their parents

And, although most computers have child safety software built in - it's rarely put into operation, because 80% of parents don't know how to use it.

On Breakfast, we spoke to Nigel Williams, chief executive of Childnet - which offers advice and campaigns for safe usage of the internet by children.

Click on the video link at the top of the page to see the interview with Nigel Williams

And there's also advice available from the BBC.

Click on the link below to go to the BBC website with advice for parents on chlidrens' use of the internet

For the BBC's in-depth advice on using the internet, click here