As it says on our Welcome web page, we are "a group of older, adult volunteers - all of whom have been there themselves, and "got the T-shirt" - we aim to offer information, guidance, emotional support and comfort to young people in a safe and friendly environment through our web pages, our Forum, and an attached, safe Chat Room.

"Our purpose is to provide additional assistance, not an alternative, to whatever professional, medical or parental support the child/teenager may need."

There's more on that "safe Chat room" in our FAQ section.

What I want to do here is to explain a little bit about why we are doing this - setting up a website and Chat room for children and teenagers under the age of eighteen.

About 3 years ago, a small group of us, initially myself and two lovely ladies, Jenni and Jo (aka Genoa) from Australia and the USA respectively, were talking together in an "adult" (that just means over-16 years of age) anxiety-depression Chat room called Phobics Awareness and agreeing how much it seemed to help us in our own fight to live with and overcome what is now one of the commonest illnesses, at least in the "western world".

Chatting to other people who, whatever our different ages, locations, backgrounds, experiences and types of illness,  all shared a common understanding of the feelings that go with it all, we agreed that it was certainly no substitute for "proper" medical care, nor for seeking help from others in the "outside world", but that rather it boosted our own understanding of each other's, and our own, conditions, gave us a place to share our feelings with people who would understand, receive support and comfort when we were down, and give it in return when we were able.

It has also given us a place to meet, and make lasting friendships with, some extraordinarily nice, caring people.

But over time, we could also realise with startling clarity just how many of us had been afflicted with these feelings even as far back as childhood.  And Phobics Awareness's Chat room, you see - like any careful and caring site of this nature - will not risk allowing under-sixteen year olds to belong.  The risks for those minors are simply too great.

If you don't believe me, take a look at our Online Safety web page, here.

Nonetheless, some under-sixteens had tried to join us there, and then been asked to leave as soon as their age was realised.  The effect on some of these kids, already upset with what Life was throwing at them, could be devastating - to be expelled, and with nowhere else we could recommend for them to go instead that was set up to care for them safely.

We looked around, ourselves, for somewhere we could recommend to them in future.

All we could find anywhere online, the three of us searching over several weeks, were a very few places that allowed kids as young as 13 to chat, but there were no ways to monitor adults in there with them should any of those turn out to be paedophiles and attempt their private "grooming" of the children.

There were some rooms where it was "teenagers only", including their so-called moderators.  I got a couple of teenagers to visit them for me.  They were, I was told, hell on earth - full of vicious bile and vitriol, no-one in charge really to control the verbal abuse, not at all the place to recommend to some shy, nervous or already upset child!

Most reluctantly - because of the legal and technical complexities involved - we decided to try and set up our own Chat room for these kids, somewhere they could get support and comfort, guidance towards people and places outside where they could be helped, and most of all somewhere safe for them to go.

And so, this is Jade . . .

No.  We're not in the least interested in making money out of this site, even to cover our own (minimal) expenses, which we simply pay for out of our own pockets with a "whip-round".

Don't ask, don't accept.  If you have money you could donate, please send it to a deserving cause of your own choice.

Not a penny, no.  Jade is an advertising-pollution-free zone.  We do indeed offer links to some other online sites, or "off-line" organisations, which we think might be interesting or useful, but we receive no recompense or quid pro quo for these.

Not in any way!  Whatever anyone's personal religious beliefs, any or none, if someone so much as attempts to preach their beliefs to other members in the Chat room, they will be out!

Moderators in Jade come from all walks of life.  Among us we have, so far: two teachers, two civil servants, two nurses, one culinary hygienist, one business consultant and a youth worker.

No doctors there, right?  No psychiatrists, no therapists, no counsellors?

No!  And for the very simple reason that none of those important jobs are what we at Jade attempt to do to help children.  It cannot be said often enough that Jade is not, and never will be, a substitute for the expert and professional help that is already out there!

Volunteer staff at Jade are chosen, never allowed to volunteer themselves.  We select likely candidates from among those people whose own emotional balance, maturity and skills at listening, encouraging and empathy are already fully demonstrated to us.

And we instantly reject any possible candidate for the job who believes they have a "cure" for anxiety, depression or any other mental condition or illness, be it medical, pharmaceutical, psychological, pseudo-psychological, "right-attitudinal", spiritual, religious, alternative-medicinal, witchcraft . . . whatever!

In Jade, we practise Friendship, Empathy, Listening, Understanding and wherever possible, Guidance towards parental and/or professional help as and when the child is ready to take that important step.

In the meantime, until they are ready, we offer them a place of safety.

Short answer is: constant real-time monitoring (moderation) and technical restrictions to the server.  Let's look at the technical side first.

If you are new to "IRC" (Internet Relay Chat), see here at Wikipedia for a basic definition and here for a more interesting (and less dry!) explanation.

Jade, while retaining the pleasant interface and main features of IRC has certain functions stripped from it.  In essence, these have been removed because of the possibility that they could be used by paedophiles for grooming children.

Jade has no private messaging whatsoever.  If members wish to chat "privately", with each other or with a Moderator, away from the main chatroom, there is another room available for them, but this too is both logged and moderated at all times.

There are no "Direct Computer-to-Computer" chats available (thus bypassing the IRC server and the logging bots) nor any DCC file sending.

Members may only join the Main Chat channel, no new rooms or channels may be created, and the Private room is only available on request of an "invitation to enter".

Members' "hostnames" and IP address details are cloaked from view, even from the Moderators and no-one is able to operate any of the commands to "sniff" details of another person's Internet identity.

Moderators themselves, apart from having "channel privileges" to enable them to silence or kick/ban anyone breaking the chatroom rules, have no greater ability to circumvent any of the technical restrictions than any other user, and they too are themselves monitored and logged, never allowed unsupervised access to minors.

From the safety point of view, their job is to enforce the Rules, which prohibit members from divulging any of the following:- details of their location, beyond which country they live in; their real name; where they go to school, the location of anywhere they visit, including where they are off to on holiday; any other personal details that would help someone work out their identity or locate their whereabouts; any contact details including zip codes, phone numbers, email addresses, "social networking sites", or any web links whatsoever.

(A preset list of useful web links is contained within the server's Message of the Day, which members can access at any time.)

Any breach of these Safety Rules will both incur a ban from Chat, and quite possibly result in a referral to the police, depending on the exact circumstances of the incident.

Other Rules are enforced by the Moderators to prevent: racist, sexist or homophobic remarks; arguments about religion or politics; any rudeness, insults, harrassment or bullying online; any discussion of sex, without the Moderator's express permission; any discussion of details, methods, plans or intentions of Suicide or any form of Self-Harm/Self-Injury including Drug Abuse.

Perfectly.  The Forum is "pre-moderated".  This means that no posts may be entered there without being checked by us first for possible divulgence of personal/identity information and for general suitability.

Same answer.  All emails are sent to Jade where they are checked first and then the content is copied to a separate email which is then sent to the intended recipient with their consent.  The original email is never "forwarded" as such and therefore none of the sender's personal details are visible to the recipient.  No-one who does not wish to receive emails from others will do so, and members can change their minds at any time.

Sorry, no.  Jade operates a policy of complete confidentiality except when co-operating with national law enforcement agencies and/or the Virtual Global Taskforce for the purposes of investigating online child abuse.  Please read section 3 of our Privacy Policy here.

Once you have done that and paid a fee, currently of £10 sterling, you will be able to view your child's Nickname in Chat, password, email address, computer IP address and date of birth.

JADE is a support site for children and younger teenagers, under the age of eighteen only, who suffer from Anxiety, Depression or other mental problems.

Some of the problems kids and teenagers come to us for help and support with:-

Anxiety, Stress and Panic Attacks - Depression - Social Anxiety - Agoraphobia - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - Self Harm (Self Injury) - Eating Disorders - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

If you or your organization have a web site or a blog, you can help us a lot by placing a link to our site on one of your web pages. Showing a link to our site will help us reach more children and teenagers who suffer from Anxiety, Depression and other mental illnesses, and increase our visibility and ranking in search engines like Google and Yahoo.