The case of Shevaun Pennington

It's difficult to know what to do when teenagers meet the Internet: it's a great tool, but also a difficult place to negotiate sometimes, even for adults.

There's been some subdued discussion in recent days on e-mint, populated by community builders and those interested in online community in the UK. On Monday, the Home Office held an all-dayer entitled Creating Safer Interactive Online Experiences For Children, which a number of industry figures attended. The Home Office seems to be interested in hearing views from the industry, and that has to be a good thing.

For their part, professional chatroom moderators try to uphold high standards and deter undesirables, though one moderator voices the concern that over-moderation may lead kids to bail out to less scrupulous sites. And moderator recruitment is itself a far from exact science.

In the wake of Shevaun Pennington, the message from communities people has been very much that what we need is education rather than legislation - much as we educate kids about not accepting sweets or about getting into cars with strangers. And making sure sites generate an evidence trail - according to industry figure Ian Dickson - is likely to scare off many pedophiles.

Bill Thompson, who comments on technology for the Beeb, has this week advocated keeping teens out of chatrooms. But are we to add to the long list of prohibitions for kids in the modern world (not being allowed out to play etc.)? And anyway, half a million kids are out there building their own chat areas on their own fan sites...It seems to me this kind of pronouncement is like telling kids 'don't take drugs'....

Last night I discussed with a colleague who has three girls of her own - and an above-average house-full of technology - what the options are as far as she can see. She says she follows recommendations, such as Internet access only in a public area where others can see - but it seems those were the guidelines that Shevaun's parents also followed. And even as adults we agreed that we sometimes seem to pick up stalkers on discussion lists and suchlike.