Internet users concerned about the content of any website should contact the police because there is no UK statutory organisation which regulates the internet, the Home Office said today.
The advice follows criticism from children's charities this week about the ChatNannies website which its creators claim was set up to monitor paedophiles in internet chat rooms.
The Home Office refused to comment on ChatNannies, but a spokesman said: "In general if people are concerned about any website they should go to the police because the law applies online as well as offline. But as far as I am aware there is no statutory regulator for the internet."
The comments came after the internet watchdog, the Internet Watch Foundation, confirmed it had no legal power to investigate general concerns about individual sites.
Its remit is to focus on internet material which breaks the Obscene Publications Act, includes images of child abuse or is criminally racist.
The response from the Home Office and IWF suggests a gap in regulation, where people are concerned about a website but where, as in the case of ChatNannies, there is no suggestion that those who host or run the website are doing anything illegal.
Yesterday the couple which set up ChatNannies defended their venture to SocietyGuardian.co.uk, arguing that they wanted to help people. They also rejected warnings from children's charities that the site could inspire vigilantes and put children in danger.
SocietyGuardian.co.uk revealed on Monday that the website, run by Eleanor Wightman and her self-employed software developer husband Jim, recruits volunteers to act as 'chatnannies' in chat rooms for young people, but the couple admitted that they do not vet prospective 'nannies' to check that they are suitable to look after children.
The website had also originally included an email page where paedophiles could ask for help but the page was taken down the day before SocietyGuardian.co.uk revealed details about ChatNannies. Another page seeking donations to fund the site has also been removed.
