When Jane's foster carers decided to emigrate to Africa three years after taking her in, she was understandably devastated.

Not only did the ten-year-old face the daunting prospect of having to move to a new foster family, but she also faced losing touch with two of the few people in her life who had offered her a degree of commitment and security.

But unlike the many horror stories that abound of children in care having endless foster placements and little stability, Jane's story has had a happy new beginning.

Fortunately for her, as a result of moving foster families ten weeks ago, she has been reunited with her nine-year-old brother David in a foster family that is committed to caring for them for the rest of the lives if necessary.

And because her new foster mum and dad, Michelle and Trevor Smith, have been chosen as one of 15 foster families to pilot a ground-breaking new internet project in Lincolnshire, she can now use the latest Web technology to keep in screen-to-screen contact with her old foster carers - in their new home in Uganda.

In the future, there is also the possibility that Jane and David will be able to use e-mail and video conferencing to keep in touch with one of their four other brothers who is also in care in the county.

Lincolnshire social services has discovered the 'distance no object' advantages of cyberspace and embraced the potential of computer and internet technology with a gusto that has left most adoption and fostering departments standing.

Last week it became the first local authority in the UK to launch a multi-media adoption and fostering website with an 'extranet' - a web network that is not available to the general public but only to the county's 293 foster carers.

Fostering can be rather isolating and stressful and carers often need access to good support mechanisms. But providing that level of support in a county as big and as sparsely populated as Lincolnshire - the fourth largest county in Britain - is a challenge few local authorities would envy.

The roads are poor and getting from one end of the county to the other can take well over an hour. And then there is the cost of petrol...

The extranet part of its Family-Lincs website is only open to the county council's registered foster carers who can apply for a password to access it.

It will allow carers and young people in care to keep in touch with each other, as well as keeping up-to-date with developments in Lincolnshire and at a national level.

Within the extranet there is information about fostering services in the county, a library of general information about fostering and childcare, and details of who carers can phone or e-mail at social services.

There are also four message 'forums' into which the carers and their fostered children can dip for support and information and in the process, build their own e-community.

One is a general liaison forum where foster carers across the county can chat and exchange ideas about, for example, dealing with a child's challenging behaviour.

The second forum is called the Fun Zone and is primarily aimed at children, but is open to adults, too.

The third forum is concerned with training opportunities and the fourth forum - the Tunnel Light forum - is open by password only to the 15 foster families involved in the council's pilot project which, it is hoped, will take the county to the courageous cutting edge of local government's use of new media technology.

Each of the families in the three-year scheme has been supplied with a new laptop computer, printer and webcam and will be aiming to see if cyberspace through the use of e-mail, and video and audio conferencing, can make up for the county's geographical shortcomings.

"We believe this is the first website in the country designed in consultation with foster carers," said Martin Belton, service manager for children in care and the project manager for the website.

He added: "The latest technology of audio and video conferencing is being used to provide young people in public care and foster carers with alternative means of communicating with each other across a rural county such as Lincolnshire."

Not all of the website has such exclusive access. Like many local authority's, Lincolnshire has used the public areas to post information about fostering in the hope of attracting more new carers. But unlike most other local authorities, it has not buried the information deep inside its own extensive county council website.

Instead, the site has registered its own separate domain name foster-lincs.org.uk which should help Web users reach the site more quickly.

And in a move thought to be unique in the UK, its website not only has text information about fostering but also sound files in which local foster carers talk about their own experiences.

This is not just about using technology to show off. In an age of 'equal opportunities' it has practical benefits in making the information more available to visually impaired people.

The 15 families in the pilot project are all hugely excited and positive about the potential benefits of the scheme in helping the education of the children they look after and also in the extra support it offers them as carers.

"I think it's an absolutely super project," says Michelle of Lincoln. "A lot of people haven't got PCs but also it's about the education of the children and the confidence they gain in learning to use the technology."

For Michelle and Trevor's two foster children, Jane and David, the advantages are already plain.

"We've been able to get in touch with Jane's old foster carer Annie in Uganda by e-mail and Annie is now planning to get a webcam so that as well as being able to e-mail each other, they will be able to see how each other is getting on, too."

In future, Jane and David may also be able to make contact with their other brother in care in the same way, she says.

As councils up and down Britain struggle to recruit enough foster carers who can take on groups of siblings, this something that could help to address the trauma children suffer as result of being split up from their brothers and sisters when they go into care.

Michelle and Trevor, along with the others in the pilot group, have received basic computer training to allow them to use their laptops and access the internet, use the website and forums.

It is expected that future training will cover more advanced skills such as audio and video conferencing and how to build and design web pages.

If the project proves successful, the authority hopes to roll it out and make it available to more foster carers across the county.

But it's not cheap. The cost of leasing the latest hardware for 15 carers has been £20,000. Developing the website, training and providing technological support has been an extra cost.

Other local authorities are showing a keen interest in the Lincolnshire experiment, part of which involves collecting data to evaluate its success.

Last week, the council gave a presentation about the scheme to the University of East Anglia at its 'Making Research Count' event in Norwich.

High on the list of aspects other authorities will be monitoring is safety.

The use of such technology with such vulnerable children at a time when media coverage of the internet would have many people believe that there are millions of paedophiles lurking in every chatroom, could be seen as a courageous move on Lincolnshire's part.

Needless to say that safe surfing is a key part of the project. Each of the families in the pilot group has Net Nanny-type censoring software installed on their PC to help prevent fostered children accessing any unsuitable websites.

But as with all censorware packages, there are bound to be weaknesses and it could be that as well as preventing children in care from accessing pornography behind their carers' backs, it will also stop them accessing useful websites about how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and about family planning.

And when asked about the possible dangers, Mr Belton is keen to stress the exclusivity of the extranet as a safety precaution.

But what's to stop young people using the webcams in more publicly accessible parts of the Net?

In the light of horror stories such as paedophiles approaching children in chatrooms and getting them to perform sexual acts in front of webcams - the key to Net safety is education, education, education.

Supervision while young people are surfing is also important - as is, says Michelle, locking away the webcam when you can't be there to keep an eye on them. But there will always be an element of trust involved in allowing children to use the Net and so good advice on the potential dangers and how to stay safe while surfing is essential.

To Lincolnshire's credit, its Family-Lincs project is, at last, evidence of a British social services department which accepts that, love it or loathe it, the Web is here to stay.

Even more to the council's credit is the fact that it has not allowed certain negative aspects of the Net to deter it from trying to harness the power of cyber technology in an innovative way which could bring a variety of benefits to children it is charged with looking after.

The address of the website is www.family-lincs.org.uk