MOTHERS are leading the way with training to help protect children from extremism and radicalisation online.

A group of 16 mothers have completed a Web Guardians course in Hove organised as part of Prevent, the national strategy to safeguard vulnerable people from being drawn in to terrorism.

Cases of young people travelling to Syria have illustrated the power of the internet as a tool for extremists in promoting their material.

Councillor Emma Daniel, chairwoman of Brighton and Hove City Council’s neighbourhoods, communities and equalities committee, joined the final session of the course and presented certificates to the women.

Cllr Daniel said: “In today’s volatile world, safeguarding vulnerable people from terrorism needs to be a community effort.

“By empowering mothers with knowledge about how to keep up to date with their child’s online world and inspiring confidence in them to have those difficult conversations about online risks with their children, we want to further support community resilience.”

The five day course was run by JAN Trust, a national charity working with women from ethnic minority communities, and organised by the city council.

It is the second time the course has been run in the city, with 29 women completing their training last year.

One of the mothers who took part said: “I found the course very helpful in how to manage online safety.

“Sharing our experience with other parents was a great way to exchange and expand our knowledge.”

Another participant said: “The course has been very useful and an eye opener to what’s going on in the world.

“It has helped me understand how to protect my child from being influenced by extremist groups like Daesh and also to put safeguarding measures on devices that my child may use in the future.

“Most importantly, what I got out of the course is the need for mothers to always communicate with their children.”

Police in Brighton have seized passports belonging to several teenagers they feared could travel to Syria.

The move came after three young people from Brighton were killed fighting for terrorist group Isis in 2014.

In April 2014, 18-year-old Abdullah Deghayes, from Saltdean, was killed in Syria and in October 2014 his brother Jaffar Deghayes, 17, also died in the fighting.

Ibrahim Kamara, 19, is believed to have been killed in a US airstrike in September 2014.

His mother, Khadijah Kamara, said shortly after his death that preventing extremism and the radicalisation of young people should start in primary school.

She added that taking away passports would not necessarily stop young people wanting to fight in Syria.

Sajda Mughal OBE, director of JAN Trust, set up the online training programme after being left traumatised when she was a passenger on a tube train targeted in the 2005 London terror attacks.

Ms Mughal said: “There is a great deal of material online designed to harm young people as well as radicalise them.

“We have been educating women so they can discuss these issues with their children and protect them.”