But new European rules designed to make the Internet a safer environment for them will fail on two key counts, according to London MEP Jean Lambert.

The Green Party MEP says the new EU-wide rules fail to tackle the issue of so-called ‘cyber-bullying’ by children themselves and that while they concentrate on protecting children from sexual imagery and on-line abuse they do nothing to protect them from advertising or predatory financial activity.

Ms Lambert said: “For nearly two years now MEPs and the European Commission have been trying to tackle the thorny issue of how to make the Internet a ‘better’ place for children.

“But these rules are about a narrow conception of Internet safety – they aren’t really about making the Internet ‘better’ in a wide sense at all.

“Not only do they fail to address cyber-bullying by children themselves but they concentrate almost exclusively on protecting children from sexual abuse on-line, failing to address any other safety issues at all.”

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