THE perils facing youngsters who use the internet are being brought to life in a series of hard-hitting films produced by school pupils.

George Tomlinson School in Kearsley, is producing short animated films about using chatrooms and popular social networking sites.

It is part of an education programme about how to stay internet safe and comes as police search for missing 15-year-old Laura Stainforth from Cleethorpes. She is thought to be with a man who she met on the internet.

And in the coming weeks, parents are to be invited into school to help keep their child out of danger when he or she is surfing the internet.

Head of information technology, Martin Worswick, said: “It is very important to teach young people about internet safety and we put it on the curriculum for years seven and eight.

“Soon all schools will have to teach internet safety as part of the new curriculum, but we introduced it earlier because it is vital to educate young people about the internet as has been shown in the news about the teenager who has gone missing.

“For those who are not familiar with the internet, what they learn about using chatrooms and social networking sites can be quite an eye opener.

“They don’t always realise that who they are talking to might not be who they say they are.”

The films are watched and discussed by other children in the school and as George Tomlinson is the only specialist maths and computer school, the clips could be accessed by other schools as part of their teaching in raising awareness of the internet.

Mr Worswick said: “Some of the short films are serious, others have a comedy element, but all get across the message about awareness of the internet”

Pupil, Ella Bradbury, aged 13, said: “The dangers facing young people on the internet are quite frightening, and the film we have compiled highlights this. We have used images of different people to show you don’t know who you are talking to on line. I’m more wary about using chatrooms.”