DID a youngster in your house get a new iPad, tablet or Smart phone for Christmas this year?

If they did and you are the giver, did you find out about it before you gave it to your child and install parental controls and other checks? If you didn’t – and I suspect that will be a large proportion of those nodding their head – you are unconsciously putting that child at risk from predatory online paedophiles.

And if you see that warning as something that couldn’t possibly happen to your child, Bolton woman Jennifer Smith has news for you: the odds are that it could. She is a barrister who formerly worked for the Crown Prosecution Service as a rape and sexual offences and child protection specialist prosecutor.

She understands the dangers lurking on the internet and now has her own safeguarding business instructing others how to make the internet safe for youngsters. As a mother of young children she knows the real dangers out there from adults who pretend to be youngsters in order to groom children – in as little as 20 seconds. She warns that the only way to keep children safe online is if parents understand what their children are doing, what apps they are using and what sites they are visiting.

Unfortunately, too many of us simply don’t take enough trouble to do this. We may feel our knowledge is already sufficient and are confident we can keep children safe just by warning them. Some of us just won’t bother to install parental controls. Jennifer advises people to visit the sites, where they will see what their children will see. She wants them to understand the acronyms that youngsters may be both subjected to and use. Even some of the mildest include GNOC (Get naked on camera), IWSN (I want sex now) and TDTM (Talk dirty to me). Others are even more explicit.

Keeping communication going with our children is vital. “My advice would be to parent online as you would in the real world,” she says. Today, our children are generally more sophisticated and tech-savvy than ever before. They are amazingly confident online and used to “conversing” with their friends that way. That familiarity is another reason to worry. But it IS up to parents to keep children safe here - just as urgently as if they were confidently marching towards a speeding car.