The parents of an internet-mad teenager who ran away after a row after running up a huge telephone bill say they will curb their daughter's online activities.

Karen Churcher, 16, of Pelton, County Durham, ran away from home after her parents discovered she had clocked up a bill of more than �900 by surfing the internet, visiting online chat rooms and calling friends on her mobile phone.

Her mother Jackie, 55, said she was glad her daughter had returned home safely but said she would be banned from using the computer for the time being.

"At the moment, Karen is not going anywhere near the computer while this is sorted out, and the plug is firmly out of the socket," she said.

Hours on the net

Miss Churcher was given internet access through the family's computer as a Christmas present last year.

Her mother said she would spend hours surfing the net most nights when the rest of the family had gone to bed.

But when the teenager checked the quarterly phone bill and realised it was nine times bigger than usual she panicked and fled the house.

It was only after Karen disappeared that her parents contacted BT to discover the full scale of the charges they faced.

Family lessons

Mrs Churcher said: "She is such a bright and intelligent girl, we know she wasn't phoning up any strange people.

"It seems the people who she met in these chatrooms were just the decent sort.

"To be honest, neither I nor my husband know enough about the Internet and exactly what people do in it.

"I will certainly be taking lessons to get more familiar with it so that I know what Karen is up to."

BT said the family's charges were just under the weekly threshold of �75, which would have triggered a warning call from BT about possible overuse.

A BT spokesman said: "We are constantly looking at our models to see how we can better alert customers to unusual levels of use.

"We are being as sympathetic as possible to the family and we will be talking to them about budgeting for their bill."