Mum who is fighting filth on the Internet

SCOTS MUM Lorraine Best is leading the fight against child corruption on the Internet.
She claims that every time you log on to the Web, you’re inviting every pornographer and paedophile in the world into your home.
Lorraine has imported software you can install on your home computer which can filter out an astounding 18 million blacklisted sites around the world.
She invited Sunday Post reporter Nora Cleeve along to tell her about the brave stand she’s taking against the Internet pornographers.

LORRAINE met me at the door of her 13th Century manor home and HQ in leafy Wiltshire.
To tell the truth, I was expecting a prim housewife with twin-set and pearls and fire in her belly. A 21st Century Scottish version of Mary Whitehouse.
The reality was a trendy 34-year-old mum with razor cut, jet black hair and fashionable gear.
Admittedly, her home could have fallen out of the pages of a posh magazine, with its arched stained-glass windows, flagstone floors, an imposing pine refectory table and wood stove burner.
But behind these centuries-old walls is one very clued-up cookie.
She will kill me for saying this, but before becoming a full-time mother to Alycia (6), she was the singer with a group called Solo who had a Number 1 hit in the Scottish club charts in 1992. Not very Mary Whitehouse, you have to agree!
No killjoy
Lorraine, who hails from Dunfermline, is no technophobe or killjoy, either. Her mission began after logging on to the Internet at home 18 months ago.
“My daughter’s mad about Barbie, so I searched the Web for information,” she told me. “But when I typed in ‘Barbie’ the titles of some of the sites that came up really upset me.
“They were extremely pornographic and it dawned on me that it could have been my daughter discovering these awful sites.”
But Lorraine isn’t suggesting we all pull the plug on our home computers.
“It’s a fantastic piece of new technology and children should be encouraged to use it, but parents must understand it’s a paedophile’s playground.
“If a school let anonymous adults into the playground to play with the kids, they’d be closed down in 30 seconds. But that’s effectively what you’re doing when you log on.
“There has to be supervision — whether that means having the computer in a room where the parents can keep an eye on it, or using a filter service.”
With her first concern to protect her daughter, Lorraine set about looking for a filter service.
“While those available all had redeeming features, they couldn’t tell me how many services they actually blocked. The biggest screener blocks 2.8 million sites, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
“Then I came across a company in Seattle with the best blocking system in the world.
“They’ve 100 people working day and night, seven days a week, reviewing one million new sites each month. I decided to set up a company to make this system available to families all over the world.

Seedier side
“Each time subscribers log on, their journey on the Internet passes through our computers and every page request will be checked against the 18 million blacklisted sites before they get the chance to look at it.”
As Lorraine delved deeper, she learned her discovery of the seedier side of the Internet was no one-off.
“Children are being drawn to pornographic websites through toy brand names. Youngsters searching for their favourite characters find the words are linked to sites containing obscene materials.

Lorraine and daughter Alycia. “If even one child is abused through the Internet it’s one too many ...”

“There are nearly 12,000 examples of names being used in this way, from Pokemon and the Mr Men to characters from Toy Story.”
Research shows one in seven parents have no idea what their children are looking at.
“A generation ago it was very different,” says
Lorraine. “My parents might have had no idea what I got up to in my bedroom, but they didn’t have to worry about some paedophile having access to me via a computer.”
Chatrooms make it easy for perverts to strike up friendships with unwitting kids.
“To use the phone, you have to know a person’s name, but in a chatroom you’re immediately connected to complete strangers. A child might think they’re talking to a 14 year-old when, in reality, it could be a 45-year-old man.”One in five children using computer chatrooms has been approached over the Internet by paedophiles.
“Teenagers are curious and may be enticed to meet people on their own without their parents, which is when all kind of problems can occur.”
Some people argue that only 21 per cent of people in the UK may be online, so it’s not a big problem.
Lorraine’s answer is, “There are five million children online, of which at least 1.1 million are using chatrooms. If one in five is being approached for some form of sexual solicitation, then you’re talking about 200,000 children.
“If one child is abused or violated using the Internet, that’s one too many.
“I’ve never been an activist, but this chilling subject is so close to home. Beating up children, torture and, in some cases, youngsters being killed for sexual gratification are images too horrendous to think about.
“Parents have to be aware these are not isolated cases and it could be their child next.
“I want to spearhead a campaign to bring about legislation to make it safer for our children. I don’t mind standing in the firing line for what I believe in.”
Delighted
Lorraine is promoting her filtering service to schools with a three-month free trial, and her existing 4500 subscribers are delighted she’s making a stand.
“The Internet is a massive profit-making business and, where money is involved, morals aren’t a priority. Lots of companies are protecting the paedophiles, not the children. They have to be accountable.
“I plan to lobby government to bring about standards for chatrooms and I appeal to all parents to approach schools and write to their local MPs.
“Meantime parents should block these chatrooms and sites with some kind of filtering service.”
FOR MORE info about Lorraine’s screening service, log on to http://www.SurfontheSafeside.com.
Annual subscription is per computer:
36 (UK£), 54 (euro/US$) or 84 (SFr/CDN$)
Phone Contact:
+44 (0845) 280-1833 (UK/Europe English)
+1 (888) 4634202 (USA/Canada English)
+41 (0) 33 823 13 38 [Deutsch/French/English]