Fife Council’s community safety partnership sent out an email to raise awareness about online safety after being contacted by the police about primary school children using a website called Omegle.

The site encourages people to “talk to strangers” and chat anonymously without needing to register.

As well as simple text, users can also access webcam and voice chat and the council is concerned that children could be left exposed to explicit conversation, pictures or video.

Paul Vaughan, head of community and corporate development, said, “We take the safety of our children very seriously and if anything comes to our attention which could place any of them in danger we will obviously act on it.

“This message has been passed to our schools from the Fife Community Safety Partnership, as part of our internet safety programme.

"The schools have been asked to make children aware and to remind them of the importance of staying safe.

"The schools will pass this safety message to the children in the usual ways.” The email which was sent out to Fife schools read, “Information has been received by Police Scotland that primary school children in Fife are visiting the website Omegle.

"There is a real concern with young people using this site. It has a strapline ‘talk to strangers’ and has no registration onto the site resulting in a difficulty of tracing those using the site.

“The site is a chat site that allows users to converse via text or webcam. Many users visit the website for sexual chat and webcam is used to exchange images and sexual behaviours. You have no control over who you chat to, your stranger is selected at random.

“We would like to share this information with you and encourage you to again discuss the dangers of speaking to people you don’t know online and remind young people of the need to behave the same way online as they do in the real world.” A spokesperson for Police Scotland said, “Keeping children safe is one of the top priorities for Police Scotland and we are committed to building safer virtual communities for everyone.

"The internet is a fantastic resource and we want to help children enjoy its benefits without being exposed to inappropriate messages and images.

“It is part of a wider education process both for schools, and more importantly for parents, to be aware of what their children are doing on their computers and to monitor their usage.

"Young people need to understand how to stay safe online and to contact an adult of they ever feel threatened.

“Any child who feels at risk or is worried should speak to a parent, guardian or teacher, or can phone Police Scotland on 101 or Childline on 0800 1111.”