The government has today published its recommendations to help protect children as they surf the Internet.

The Telegraph leaked one of the recommendations recently - that the 999 emergency details be displayed on all networking sites, but the report by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith actually takes this a step further.

The Government wants networking sites, such as Facebook, to add links to agencies including the NSPCC and the Samaritans.

However, the focus of the report is on how to prevent sex offenders getting any access to childrens' details or a way of contacting them in the first place.

The report urges the industry, including social networking sites and ISPs, to work together with law enforcement agencies, headed up by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

The Government proposes that the email addresses of registered child sex offenders will be passed by police to social networking websites, enabling these websites to block offenders from using their sites.

Full story: pocket-lint.co.uk