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Nearly one-fifth of parents and carers who took part in a West Sussex County Council survey said they had no controls or privacy settings set up on their children's online accounts.

The figures were shared during a scrutiny committee meeting in November where a stark picture was painted of the dangers faced by youngsters when they take to the web.

Francesca Blow, the council's digital safety lead, told the meeting that the Internet Watch Foundation had reported a 235 per cent increase in 2020/21 among 7-10-year-olds nationwide in what is called self-generated sexual imagery.

This is essentially when youngsters are groomed, deceived or extorted into producing and sharing a sexual image or video of themselves.

Efforts are being made to improve online child safety

Sexual abuse imagery of children aged 11-13 was most prevalent, accounting for almost seven in ten instances.

Ms Blow said: "We know locally when we have been engaging with professionals and school staff about this and letting them know these figures, many of them have been very surprised about the age group and the level of concern there is at how young an age it can be."

The council has prepared a digital safety package for schools which includes online safety training for staff, pre-recorded training for governors, webinars for parents and carers and a monthly briefing document.

One of the schools which has bought the package is Swiss Gardens Primary, in Shoreham-by-Sea.

A letter from Claire Older, the school's assistant head for inclusion and safeguarding, said: "One of our key concerns is that children do not have the knowledge or confidence to keep themselves safe online.

"Through our curriculum and teaching, we are helping our children to navigate the online world safely to increase their knowledge and confidence so that they are able to do this.

"The [package] sessions really helped us to focus in school on getting the children to evaluate what they see online, to recognise techniques used for persuasion, to understand acceptable and unacceptable online behaviour, to identify online risks and how and when to seek support."

Looking at other online dangers, the meeting was told that victims of digital fraud in West Sussex had been conned out of £21.4m in 2021.

The first half of 2022 saw dating and romance fraud, sextortion and investment fraud top the areas of concern.

Efforts to keep West Sussex children safe online