Thanks to my work in the field of technology, I’ve developed a bit of a reputation as the one in my group who knows a thing or two about gadgets and the latest kit.

It’s always been easy for me to recommend a decent smartphone under £100, or suggest a video game your 92-year old granny might like, but there’s one area I find hard to offer advice – how to keep younger family members safe online.

I’m part of the last generation that grew up without the internet. It didn’t really become commonplace in our homes until I was out of my teenage years.

By that point, I was almost in full-time work and had gone through most of the arguments with my now much loved dad and mum.

Today, 71 per cent of children aged five to 15 have access to a tablet computer, while 88 per cent access the internet through a computer or laptop.

Friends who chose to have children in their mid-to-late-20s now face a very real dilemma about online usage – should their children be allowed to freely roam the internet, or be tightly policed either by software or the beady eye of a parent?

All of us with younger people in our lives have an important obligation to be as supportive in the online space as we are in the real world.

To a child, bullying or harsh words on the internet can have as big an effect as a dust-up in the playground.

For years the recommendation was to keep children under close watch, but now a group of experts from Oxford University and the online safety organisation, Parents Zone, suggest that adults should give children their own space to discover the good and bad of the internet for themselves. Suggesting parents do what they feel best may feel like a total cop-out on my part, but just as every child is different, so should the strategy to help them grow and develop in our increasingly digital world.