Internet a greater risk to children than travel, say safety experts

Safeguarding experts and child psychologists have said the risks to teenagers are increasingly "far greater" online at home than when travelling independently following the row about the television presenter Kirstie Allsopp allowing her teenage son to go Interrailing.

- Emily Dugan

A debate on the protection of teenagers was prompted by Allsopp, who said that social services had interviewed her after she posted online about her son, then 15, taking a rail trip around Europe after his GCSEs.

A child safeguarding consultant, Simon Bailey, told the Guardian: "The risk is far greater with a child up in their bedroom with access to a smart device than it is travelling to Berlin, Munich and seeing some of the wonderful sights that Europe provides."

Bailey, a former chief constable who was once the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for child protection, said teenagers were at greater risk at home on their smartphones than parents realise.

"There is a greater risk to children now in the online space than there ever has been before and actually the online world in which they inhabit poses greater risks than the physical world in which they live".