The new site has been created to inform young people about the potential dangers and ways of keeping safe in interactive areas online, such as chatrooms, instant messenger, online games and email, and also via mobile phones. The aim of the site is very much to inform and empower users of these services, so they can use these services safely.

Childnet International, the children’s Internet charity, redesigned the Chatdanger website following extensive research with children in the UK and in Denmark.  The research was carried out together with Save the Children Denmark as part of a project funded by the EU Daphne Programme.

From the focus group research with children and young people, and drawing from the 5000 e-mails sent by chat users to the original Chatdanger site (since its launch in October 2000), Childnet has been able to create a site that can keep pace with young visitors’ needs and their changing use of interactive technology.

There is a rotating banner on the website that contains the SMART rules, the key tips for keeping Smart online, which is open source and downloadable.  It is available to anyone wanting to use these messages for keeping safe online.