UPD2 UK Government and ISPs Launch £25 Million Internet Safety Campaign

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has confirmed the launch of a new £25m Internet Safety Campaign with the country’s largest broadband ISPs that aims to help educate parents about how best to keep their children safe from adult Internet content. The move is expected to precede the re-announcement of new Internet filtering measures.

Since last year the Government has been pushing hard for Internet Service Providers (ISP) to introduce new measures (Active Choice Plus) to help combat online porn and other content deemed to be “harmful” and over the summer it finally got its wish (New Code of Conduct).

All of the major broadband ISPs have since agreed to adopt strict new network-level filtering blocks for adult websites (Parental Controls). TalkTalk has been offering a similar service called HomeSafe for several years and yesterday Sky Broadband joined them with their Sky Shield product (here). Meanwhile Virgin Media and BT are expected to follow within the next two months.

The new filters give both new and eventually existing customers an “enforced” choice about whether or not to enable censorship of their Internet connections (the “Yes” box will be pre-ticked), which also includes the ability to select from a variety of different categories (e.g. porn, self-harm, social networking, copyright, free speech etc.). The country’s six biggest public wifi operators (Arquiva, BT, Sky, Nomad, Virgin Media and o2) will also enable similar filters on their hotspots.

At the same time ISPs are also expected to help support a major new £25 million Internet Safety Campaign that will work to offer things like computer skills training for adults and advice on how to stay safe online.

David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, said:

“I made a promise in July that I would take action to help parents protect their children when online at home and we are now delivering on that promise. In the weeks and months ahead, millions of hard working families will only need one click to protect their whole home and to keep their children safe.

And when someone sets up a new broadband account, the settings to install family friendly filters will be automatically selected and it will only be switched off if the parent choses to do so.”

Most of the measures, which are expected to be formally re-announced again as part of a wider industry meeting with ISPs on Monday at Number 10 Downing Street, have already been unveiled but the £25m awareness campaign for parents is fairly new. The Department for Education controversially sprung the campaign idea on ISPs in July 2013 (here) but at the time it was not clear what would be involved or how much it might cost.

However network-level filtering, which means that the broadband ISP controls the website blocking at its end of the service and this allows the restrictions to be imposed across all of your networked devices (i.e. those that connect via your home broadband router), is far from a perfect solution. For example, the categories on offer often catch legitimate websites and business. Technical errors can also result in wrongful blocking and most children will have little trouble circumventing the skin-deep ISP censorship systems.

Cameron also wants smaller ISPs to follow suit but for most of those the cost of developing and implementing such systems is unlikely to be viable. Meanwhile some providers, such as AAISP, have simply decided to give new customers the option of whether or not to continue ordering their connection as an uncensored Internet service or to find a different ISP.

The new campaign is due to start in 2014.

UPDATE 6:11pm

We’ve had some official comments in from the ISPs.

Gavin Patterson, BT’s CEO, said:

“We are very pleased to be a part of this joint effort across the broadband industry to help families to get the best advice and support about online safety. We’ve been focused on the issue of online safety since we developed the world’s first Cleanfeed filter to block child abuse images and made the technology available free to other ISPs across the world a decade ago. BT will be launching a whole-home filter shortly to add to the tools we already make available for free to our customers, but awareness, expert advice and support are crucial in making sure that parents feel confident in using the protections that are offered by ISPs.”

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s CEO, said:

“We are pleased to be supporting this industry-wide initiative to help families enjoy the best of the internet in a safe and secure environment. Protecting children from inappropriate content in the digital world is something Sky has led the way on. Sky Broadband Shield is now available to all of our five million broadband customers, offering family friendly filters that help parents choose which websites can be accessed in the home. This builds on the leadership position we have taken through our TV and public WiFi platforms.”

Dido Harding, TalkTalk CEO, said:

“This is a major step forward for internet safety in the UK with the four leading internet providers coming together to lead the way. HomeSafe, our whole home parental controls service, has been in place for over two years now and we are proud that, now, as an industry, we can build on this progress and help parents be properly informed and equipped to help their children stay safe online.”

Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media CEO, said:

“Being online opens up huge opportunities for us all and we believe technology helps make good things happen. But there are also questions and challenges we need to tackle and, with significant support from across the broadband industry, this nationwide campaign will help ensure all our customers make the most of the parental controls, tools and information we provide to help them stay safe online.”

UPDATE 18th November 2013

Next we have a comment from the Internet Service Providers Association UK (ISPA).

Nicholas Lansman, ISPA Secretary General, said:

“The UK internet industry has led the world in combating online child abuse images for twenty years and the IWF model has been exported around the world. Whilst blocking search terms may help inadvertent access, those sharing and distributing this material are using other means to gain access. Alongside today’s welcome efforts from industry, Government should ensure that CEOP and law enforcement also get the necessary resources to tackle the removal of child abuse at source and bring the perpetrators to account.

We will be discussing online safety at the ISPA Conference next Tuesday, and a full agenda and tickets can be seen here.”