Time to tackle web-sex threat

This is not their fault. Websites like Bebo, and Facebook, which Peter Chapman used to create a profile before murdering a 17-year-old girl, are relatively new and society as a whole has not yet worked out how to prevent them from being a forum for the planning of the most appalling acts.

The answer will come not from one institution but from police,

politicians, parents and the sites themselves working together.

Legislation, inevitably, has to play a part. The intervention by Sir Norman Bettison, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire police, in which he warned that the internet was an "ungoverned space", seems to be a recognition of this view. Senior policemen are fond of saying that their job is to enforce existing laws, not to create more of them, so if Sir Norman thinks it is time for greater governance of the web, then he should be listened to.

If social networking sites do not choose to monitor the people who use their pages more closely, then they ought to be compelled to do so. Facebook appears to have recognised this, which is why it said yesterday, after meeting Home Secretary Alan Johnson, that it is now willing to consider installing the anti-paedophile panic button.

As the General Election approaches, Mr Johnson, the Hull West and Hessle MP, must not let the matter rest because the need for a solution is urgent. Vulnerable teenagers are going missing in Yorkshire "every day", according to Sir Norman.

Of course, those who make and enforce the law cannot do everything themselves. Parents have a huge role to play and they should take a conspicuous interest in whom their children talk to online. When compared to the threat posed by abusers, the risk of intrusion from mum and dad is clearly the lesser of two evils.