Parents 'should spy on web use'

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Parents should monitor children's web use to protect them from paedophiles, campaigner Sara Payne has said.

The government's victims' champion said software should be installed to check they were not being groomed or bullied.

Mrs Payne, whose daughter Sarah was murdered by a paedophile, admitted "spying" on her own children as she launched Real Radio's Websafe campaign.

A fifth of 3,680 schoolchildren polled for the station said they had given personal information to a stranger.

A further 16% agreed to meet someone they had never met after chatting to them on the internet, the survey revealed.

And almost a quarter admitted deliberately trying to keep what they were doing online secret from their parents.

'You're the parent'

Mrs Payne said many children were being stalked and harassed by bullies who forced them to "constantly" change their phone numbers.

"I'm not sorry or apologising for being involved in my children's lives," she said.

"You just have to tell them - yes, you can have the internet, but this software will be on there and I will check at some point and if you don't stick to these rules, the internet goes.

"You're the parent, they're the child and, quite frankly, there's nothing wrong with that."

Mrs Payne, who took up her government-appointed post at the end of January, has become a prominent campaigner for victims' rights since the death of her daughter in 2000.