A Kent police officer has urged parents to watch their children surfing the net after figures for web crime more than doubled in the county.

The number of cases rose from 107 to 262 between 2006 and 2007. This includes the worst types of crime from internet grooming, downloading indecent images to cyber-bullying.

Now PC Martin Carter is calling on parents to take more notice of what their children are doing online to avoid harmful encounters with strangers.

PC Carter, who also works closely with Kent County Council’s e-Safety group, warned: "Parents should be worried - I would urge them to identify what it is their children are doing and try to give them some advice and guidance.

"One of the biggest problems is young people responding to questionnaires and prompts for personal data without thinking of the consequences, such as the personal information they are giving away."

~ Listen: PC Carter offers more advice >>>

The figures were released by Kent Police via the national Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, (CEOP).

CEOP works with the public protection unit within Kent Police to bring sex offenders to justice.

A Kent Police spokesman said: "This is not to scare people about sex offenders out there, but to make people realise that this is real.

"We hope that parents and guardians who have children are aware of the dangers of the internet in order to help keep them safe, especially during the school holidays. It’s very pertinent."

Over the last two years the police have removed 28 children from abusive situations.

A police spokesman added: "It’s important that parents should be concerned and be aware that CEOP and Kent Police work very hard to get these people off the streets and before the courts.”

According to CEOP, Kent is one of the best counties for incorporating the Think you Know programme where pupils have learnt about the availability of the ‘report abuse button’ on social networking sites.

This means that children can contact CEOP immediately and report any incident that the police can then investigate.

For more information visit CEOP's Think U Know programme at www.thinkuknow.co.uk

and www.ceop.gov.uk/

Internet safety advice