I joined a group of parents at Eastbrook Primary Academy last Friday for an online safety workshop organised jointly by the NSPCC and O2. It was both informative and alarming and many concerned parents came away fired up to do more to find out what their children are up to online.
The internet is a fantastic resource but it is also something of a ‘Wild West’ and a potentially dangerous place for impressionable, peer pressured youngsters. The numbers of young children communicating with complete strangers who turn out to be abusers posing as youngsters is particularly frightening and I have seen the results of what they are capable of doing on visits to the National Crime Agency. Many are particularly adept at using technology to disguise their exploits.
Many parents swapped horror stories about their own children including one mum whose son had run up a bill of no less than £3000 accessing freely available apps linked to his parent’s auto pay credit cards. The NSPCC offer a really good advice service and help line for parents worried about what their children are accessing and you can also download the Net Aware app. Well done to O2 for promoting this service which frankly all the mobile and social media companies should be doing so that every school can run similar workshops.
Last week West Sussex and Worthing Council leaders Louise Goldsmith and Dan Humphreys joined Peter Bottomley and me for an update meeting with Roads’ Minister Jesse Norman and Highways England about the A27. The lack of any recent news is a reflection of just how problematic online options are proving to be rather than any lack of will to crack this one and I share everyone’s frustration at the sow progress thus far. Highways England reiterated the favoured bypass option is just not viable given it would have to be tunnelled through the National Park. Based on estimates recently published for the tunnel proposed to circumvent Stonehenge that would cost £1.3bn for starters and the Lancing-Worthing stretch would need to be twice as long catapulting it into a completely different and alas uneconomic cost level. As usual I will keep constituents posted.
We expect much of our police and in too many cases they have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect us as we were starkly reminded by the tragic death of PC Keith Palmer outside Parliament last year. I was pleased therefore to attend a reception at the Commons to promote a new police memorial to commemorate all those officers who have fallen to which the Government has contributed £1m but for which further funding is still being collected. In the year we commemorate the end of the First World War when so many in military uniform gave their lives it is right that we should equally pay tribute to those who have given their lives to protect us in the police force.