West Mercia Police has today launched a child safety website to keep parents and carers up-to-date with online dangers and threats.

The new e-safety bulletin service, which is being promoted through a communications campaign designed by SEED Communications, aims to provide timely updates from a trusted source, with a free child e-safety guide containing useful advice such as the SMART rules and the 5P’s for parents available to download from westmerciabulletin.org.uk.

West Mercia Police’s detective superintendent Martin Lakeman, who is leading the campaign, commented: “The internet is a fantastic place but just like any fantastic place it has risks. We are doing all we can to educate everyone in our local communities about the potential dangers that face children online and the simple steps that will keep them safe from harm. Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and we urge all parents and carers to sign up. Our goal is to achieve at least 7,000 parent subscribers over the next four weeks and we are deliberately timing this campaign to coincide with the start of the school summer holidays when children will be away from school and looking for things to do.”

SEED managing partner Martin Thurley added: “It’s very hard to break through the noise around child e-safety and to target parents effectively. We have done this through working collaboratively with Local Authorities and schools in West Mercia ...We wanted to provide an easy way for busy parents / carers to be able to access latest facts and useful tips to help keep their families safe online.”