Oliver boosting Net safety at 14

While some 14-year-olds were spending their half-term holiday playing on a Wii or PlayStation, Oliver Jones was in Brussels advising website giants on internet safety.

The Kingswinford teenager, who achieved an A-grade in GCSE ICT when 13, runs his own webserver from his bedroom and is a member of CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) a government body aiming to keep children safe on-line.

The Kingswinford School pupil has now become something of an expert, encouraged by parents Andrew and Helen. He said: "When I was younger my parents didn't want me to spend too long on my computer. But now they have seen how it will stand me in good stead.

"I have one computer, which I have for my homework, and the other is programmed to be a webserver, which people can log on to from Internet Explorer. Recently I set up a piece of code that blocks people from viewing programming that other people have written, so they can have copyright over it."

His expertise is making the internet safer for children.Three panel members from England, all under the age of 16, went to Brussels to attend a meeting of CEOP. There are 27 young people on the panel. Oliver said: "My role is to provide feedback on measures that websites can take to protect young users. This covers cyber bullying as well as when a youngster is chatting to someone and they want to take that friendship into the real world."

Oliver, who has a website www.theollidude.co.uk and says his ambition is to work for Microsoft says representatives from companies including Vodafone, Myspace, Bebo, Orange and Visa, have taken his advice on board.

He said: "We advised them that using TV to get information out to children is not the best way, because they don't usually watch the adverts. We also told them that information about websites that have been visited need to be logged onto bills. Websites, such as Facebook, also need to have panic buttons that youngsters can press if they feel they are in danger."