On the day of Darlington">Ashleigh Hall’s funeral, calls are being made for tighter controls on social networking sites after the teenager was allegedly killed by a man she met online THE Government was last night facing calls to make internet safety a compulsory part of the national curriculum following the death of North-East teenager Ashleigh Hall.

On the eve of Ashleigh’s funeral, a committee of councillors in her home town of Darlington called for more to be done to keep kids safe online.

The children and young people’s scrutiny committee requested a report after 17- year-old Ashleigh was killed after she met a man via a social networking website.

Her body was discovered in a field near Sedgefield, in County Durham, on Monday, October 27.

Hundreds of people are expected to attend St Cuthbert’s Church this afternoon to pay their respects to the former Hurworth School pupil.

At yesterday’s meeting, the council’s school development officer, John Steel, told members that the national curriculum does not give advice on how to teach internet safety.

The council teaches safety in its schools via mentors using information provided by the thinkuknow website and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP). However, Mr Steel said it was up to individual schools how that guidance was implemented.

Nearly 1,200 DVDs with information on internet security have been ordered. They will be issued to pupils in their first year at secondary school.

School computers also have two filters to prevent inappropriate content being accessed.

However, Mr Steel said nearly 90 per cent of homes have internet access and work needed to be done on internet safety in the home.

Computers should be in an area where everybody can see what their children are viewing, he said.

He added: “Parents have a critical role in this. Kids spend most of their time at home.

But the real control is with the users, that’s why it’s important we educate the users.”

Councillor Jenny Chapman, the council’s cabinet member for children and young people, said she was concerned that only year seven pupils were getting the relevant information. She said: “Something that concerns me is that this type of resource isn’t available to every young person in Darlington.

That is a challenge that we, as an authority, need to take on. Perhaps we can campaign for that to be on the curriculum for all young people in our schools.”

The council is preparing a package of teaching materials backed up by resources from the CEOP.

At the moment there is no statutory curriculum to do this.

Debbie Leigh, interim principal at Darlington College where Ashleigh was enrolled on a childcare course, said every pupil at the college had received internet safety reminders when they returned after the half-term holiday.

She said: “We have got to try to take some good out of it.

“They were taught about Ashleigh, not just about internet safety. It’s about one of our students, it’s about this business of, ‘it’ll never happen to me’.

“That’s what we’ve tried to do.”

The chairman of the committee, Councillor Cyndi Hughes, who requested the report, said: “We can all see that the possibilities this technology offers is absolutely amazing.

“We really don’t want to be stymieing that, as it helps with opportunities and a view of the world.

“But we need to warn children and parents.”

A task and finish group has been set up, which will make recommendations to the council’s cabinet about issues which should addressed.

The calls came as Government ministers shelved plans to block known paedophiles from social networking sites such as Facebook over fears that it would breach their human rights.

Under the proposals – similar to those already in place in the US – more than 30,000 sex offenders would be denied access, with failure to comply resulting in up to five years’ imprisonment.

However, with the plan requiring police to share the personal details and email addresses of registered sex offenders with the social networking sites, the Home Office has been forced to backtrack over fears that incompatibility with the right to privacy would leave the legislation open to legal challenge More than 200 mourners are expected to attend Ashleigh’s funeral service today, at 3pm.

■ Peter Chapman, 32, of no fixed address, was charged with kidnap, manslaughter and failing to notify of a change of address as required by the Sex Offences Act, and will appear before Teesside Crown Court in January.