SOCIAL networking sites like Facebook are most commonly used by friends and family to keep in touch with each other, arrange events and share holiday pictures.

However, a more sinister use for the site has been revealed.

Over a six-month period and with the assistance of mobile phones, a nursery worker had been sending child sex abuse pictures to two people she had befriended through Facebook, yet never met in person.

The horrific actions of Vanessa George and her two accomplices have sparked renewed fears about the internet as a tool for paedophiles, not only to share their material, but now also as a way of meeting other like-minded people.

Action is already being taken in Dorset to further raise awareness about the safety of children while they use the internet.

Believed to be the first of its kind in the South, Dorset Internet Safety Day was being held at the Pavilion on Saturday, October 3, between 10am and 4pm, with a further event at the Dorford Centre in Dorchester on Saturday, October 10.

The events were to feature safety talks from police officers and Dorset’s Safe Schools and Communities Team, and parents would be able to hear from a local victim of online grooming.

Dorset’s Safe Schools and Communities Team is a partnership between the police and the county’s Youth Offending Team, who have recently been working closely with Dorset children’s charity, Streetwise.

Alison Shelton, manager of Streetwise, said:“Advanced technologies like the internet and camera phones are forever giving online predators the kind of opportunities they thrive on.

“The internet is a wonderful thing but we have to be aware of the dangers that come with it – social networking sites are the newest danger at the moment.”

Claude Knights, director for national children’s charity, Kidscape, thinks the Internet Safety Day is a big step in the right direction.

She said: “It sounds like a great idea and I hope it’s one that other local authorities will copy and replicate.

“One of the main things we find is that the parents feel disenfranchised when it comes to their children using the internet, so getting them together with their children to talk about internet safety is a very positive step.

“Young children are often streets ahead of their parents in terms of what they can do on the internet and it can be hard for parents to be aware of what their children are doing in their ‘online life’.”

“The most important thing is that they communicate with their children and vice-versa.

“Children also need to realise the vulnerability of putting too much information on their social networking profiles as so much of the predatory life occurs online these days.

“It’s like the new park – where you imagine the dark figure lurking in the bushes in a long coat – however, the internet is a huge park and very hard to police.

“To combat this we have to get as much information as possible across to both children and parents. As with most things, knowledge is power.”