Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 08 Oct 2003 15:02

Parents across the UK will soon be 'textperts' thanks to a new campaign from Milly's Fund - the charity set up by Milly Dowler's parents to raise personal safety awareness in children and young adults - and supported by mobile communications network O2.

Launching at Personal Safety for Families Day on the 13th October 2003 as part of this year's annual Suzy Lamplugh National Personal Safety Week, 'Teach UR Mum 2 Txt' aims to make parents more text savvy and aid better communication with their children.

The campaign was the brainchild of Sally and Bob Dowler who turned to texting as an efficient and unobtrusive way of keeping in touch with Milly's sister, Gemma, after Milly went missing. Sally explained:

"We felt it important that Gemma was still able to go out and about so quickly learned to text as an easy and discreet way of keeping in touch without embarrassing Gemma by constantly calling. It gave us both a great sense of security and still does."

Alongside the national launch, a regional tour will take place in UK cities to give parents and their children further texting tips. Pocket-sized booklets with top texting tips and safety advice for both parents and children will also be available from all O2 retail stores.

Glenn Manoff, Head of Communications at O2 said: "We were looking for an initiative where we could work with Milly's Fund - the charity our employees have chosen to support, to make a real and lasting contribution to their aims without any 'corporate push' from O2. The Teach UR Mum 2 Text campaign is a great way for us to lend our mobile expertise and provide a platform for Milly's Fund to promote personal safety awareness in children, young adults and in this instance parents!"

For more details, log onto www.millysfund.org.uk