Children as young as five are being targeted in a new online safety campaign by the UK body charged with protecting children from abuse.

The campaign uses cartoons to show five to seven-year-olds that people are not always what they seem.

It is thought 80% of children in this age group use the web and one-in-five parents of this age group worry about who their children contact online.

The campaign is being launched as part of EU Internet Safety Day.

The organisation behind the safety campaign – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) – is one of the many which have been behind campaigns designed to help children and teenagers to keep themselves safe from online predators.

The organisation believes that by raising awareness of online risks at an early age, children will be better protected as they grow up.

When it was set up nearly four years ago, it began by running campaigns in secondary schools for teenagers and has gradually targeted younger and younger groups.

‘Unnecessary risk’

Head of Ceop, Jim Gamble, said: “Unfortunately, some of the victims we see here are very young.

“People will try to find out where they are, where they go to school. Children can expose themselves to unnecessary risk.

SAFETY TIPS FOR PARENTS Talk to your child about what they are doing online Make sure your children understand they should keep online friends online If they want to meet someone in the real world, make sure they take you, or another trusted adult, with them Encourage your child to only chat to and webcam with people they know in the real world and that they understand why they need to protect personal information Encourage your child to only chat to and webcam with people they know in the real world and that they understand why they need to protect personal information Source: Ceop

“We do see children who are younger and younger being exposed to risk – and the risk is not always clear. There are a number of subtle messages.

“Unbelievably some of these children have access to webcams, but that’s the world we live in.”

Ceop says every week, among the 500 cases being reported through its “Report abuse” button found on some websites, there will be four from children at immediate risk of harm.

Anecdotal evidence suggests very young children are getting onto social networking sites aimed at teenagers and adults – where they are very vulnerable to online predators.

Jo Bryce, from the Cyber Research Centre at the University of Central Lancashire, said: “I have been into schools to give talks on e-safety and teachers have told me that six and seven-olds there are on social networking sites.”

Among publicised cases of abuse of children who have been targeted individually online, however, she says, the victims have tended to be older – aged 10 and up.

Young teenage girls were most at risk.

Dr Bryce said educating children at a young age was the best approach to take.

“The focus on e-safety education for children aged five-plus is absolutely the right thing to do. Then you can build up the information over time so they can keep themselves safe,” she said.

Still traumatised

One teenager has spoken to BBC News about how she was targeted online by a paedophile when she was 12.

He began messaging her after being introduced as a “friend of a friend”.