Social networking sites will be required to remove material unsuitable for children, such as nude or violent images and comments, within 24 hours of receiving a complaint, under a tough new code for internet safety.

The Byron Review on e-safety, published yesterday, also recommends that search engines such as Google and Yahoo display a “safe search” button prominently on their home page, to filter out potentially harmful material when children search the web.

The report, by the clinical psychologist and writer Tanya Byron, also recommends that websites promoting suicide be closed, using existing laws on assisted suicide. Those that promote self-harm and eating disorders should also come under greater legal scrutiny.

Dr Byron, a mother of two, said yesterday: “Many parents seem to believe that when their child is online it is similar to them watching television. In fact it is more like opening the front door and letting your child go outside to play unsupervised.”

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The review recommends the creation of a UK council for child internet safety, established by and reporting to the Prime Minister and including representatives from the Home Office and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The council should be the conscience of the industry, encouraging it to take a greater responsibility for removing inappropriate content promptly, promoting and improving parental control software and regulating online advertising.

The review also called for e-safety lessons in schools and a campaign to inform parents, grandparents, teachers and childcarers about how to ensure safe use of the internet.

Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, said that he accepted all of Dr Byron’s recommendations and would “take them forward”. However, when pressed by Dr Byron at the launch of her report on whether this meant that he would implement them all in full, he was less clear. Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, suggested that the public education campaign might be funded by industry and not by the Government.

Dr Byron’s report was commissioned by the Prime Minister last year in response to growing moral panic about the dangers of the digital world, with children being exposed to pornography, violence, self-harm or contact from paedophiles.

While other countries are grappling with similar problems, Gordon Brown hopes that Britain can seize the opportunity to use Dr Byron’s report – the first of its kind – to set the world standard for child digital safety.

Dr Byron’s report found that children and young people had very positive attitudes towards the internet. It said that children started exploring video games and the internet on their own at the age of seven or eight. But some children felt unsure of what they were doing. As one nine-year-old boy told her: “I’m worried I’ll get lost on the internet and find I’ve suddenly got a job in the Army or something.”

The digital industry welcomed the report, with all the main businesses emphasising the importance of pulling together to tackle the problem. None, however, would give specific backing to any of the recommendations.

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