At its counter-terrorism conference in Brighton this week, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) approved a blueprint for how to prevent al Qaida recruiting fresh supporters.

The 40-page document aims to stop extremist ideas gaining hold in schools, colleges, prisons and over the internet. It includes advice for parents on how to stop their children searching for jihadist websites.

"The internet is a potential area where a tendency towards violent extremism can be exploited," it reads. "Parents and carers have a need for advice on how to control access for their children and to understand what defines the legal-potentially illegal divide."

The strategy also outlines details of an anti-extremist agenda to be included at every level of state-maintained education from primary school to university by 2008-09.

It speaks of a "pressing need" to develop relationships between the police and the education sector "at every level" with regard to preventing violent extremism.

The strategy will be rooted in "neighbourhood profiling" to establish what is normal and what is unusual behaviour.

An unnamed senior source told The Guardian newspaper that it was important to map areas of the country for their tendency to produce extremists.

The source said: "You have to assess where the need is greatest. Just relying on the census data for the number of Muslims in an area is not detailed or sophisticated enough."

The document has not yet been published.