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Q What do you mean by Internet grooming?

A Young people using the Internet are vulnerable. The Internet is not secure and particularly in chat rooms and on message boards. They can be communicating with anyone. Including groomers who often pose as another young person. The groomer asks leading questions, which over time become inappropriate and sexual in nature, resulting in a request for a meeting between the groomer and the young person.

Often young people are not aware of the risk to which they are exposed. They can be intimidated by the conversation and do not feel able to discuss it with an adult. Sometimes the online conversation can be going on at home and the parents are completely unaware that of the threat facing their children.

Q Is Internet grooming a growing problem?

A As young people have increased access to the Internet, so there is an increased risk that they will encounter inappropriate conversations online.

Q How does the Anti-Grooming Engine work?

A Our Anti-Grooming Engine - 'AGE' - is a software application that analyses conversations taking place in public and private chat rooms over a period of time. This ongoing monitoring allows AGE to assess the risk as a relationship develops. Each household configures the software to their own personal risk settings, and if the conversation steps over this boundary, then both parent and child are immediately notified.

Q How is your software different from any other on the market?

A AGE is a reassurance tool for parents and young people. It is unique in that it acts as a silent hunter, advising parents of inappropriate conversations, whilst ensuring that young people have freedom to communicate online.

The way the product has been designed is completely different. It focuses on protecting young people from external threats, rather than on moderating what they can and cannot do on the net. The end result provides an experience which is positive for both parents and young people.

Q Do I need to install Crisp on every PC in my home?

A Your subscription to Crisp allows you to install it on EVERY PC in the house - regardless of how many you have; you only pay the same fee.

In fact, we recommend that you do this so that Crisp can protect your children whichever PC they use to access the internet. Once Crisp is installed all the PC's in your house will then report back to your online Log Book and enable you to better understand your children's online activity as well as any resulting alerts from one page. Simple, but remember, if you have a PC in the house that does not have installed Crisp on it then it isn't protected.

More instructions on how to install Crisp can be found in the Help guide (marked with a) in your Log Book page. Log-in here.

Q Will your software work with my system?

A Crisp currently supports Microsoft Windows Vista©, Windows XP©, MSN or Windows Live Messenger, AOL IM, Yahoo, ICQ & MySpace. We are already working on expanding our coverage with other chat clients such as GoogleTalk, Meebo, Second Life and Habbo Hotel, as well as other operating systems such as Apple Mac©.

Q How can you help protect young people from Internet Grooming outside the house?

A We know that we can protect young people in the home with AGE, and we are working very closely with Internet Service Providers to ensure that AGE is as widely available as possible both inside and outside of the home.

As more households join the community, the smarter AGE becomes, because every conversation scanned enhances its identification capabilities. By building a comprehensive network of users, we are building an extensive net to identify abusers.

Q How do you inform parents?

A Parents can be informed either by SMS, email, or a web page, depending on their preferences.

Q Will it interfere with a young person's enjoyment of the Internet?

A For the first time, young people will have a safe opportunity to communicate freely online when using both messaging and the Internet. Until this point the only sure solution to keep them safe online, was to prevent them from using chat rooms and messaging. With AGE, young people have freedom online, whilst their conversations are monitored for evolving suspicious patterns and language that might be a threat to them.

Groomers are insidious and devious, luring young people into a false sense of security. Often, young people have no idea of the potential danger, and cannot spot the signs, the patterns or the language. AGE can do this for families.

Q What happens when you inform parents?

A Parents instinctively know how best to protect their children, and it is our responsibility to alert both the young person and the parent to any potential threat.