Yesterday, the Prime Minister made a speech about online pornography and making the internet safer for children.
As part of his speech he said that the Government wants to support parents more and ensure they have the tools available to help reduce the chances of children being exposed to pornography online.
There are some great steps being taken by industry:
- by the end of next month all public wi-fi providers will set up family-friendly filters
- the big 4 Internet Service Providers (TalkTalk, Virgin, Sky and BT) already provide free filtering tools to their customers – and by the end of the year they will ensure that the filters they offer cover any device connected to your home internet
- by the end of next year, the big 4 ISPs will have contacted all of their existing customers and presented them with an unavoidable decision about whether or not to install family friendly content filters, which will help make sure all parents are aware of the tools available.
But there’s no need to wait until then!
Childnet, as part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, has worked together with the big 4 ISPs to produce these helpful video guides explaining where you can find their free parental controls and how to set them up.
It is worth bearing in mind that no filter is ever 100% effective, but they can be a real help in reducing the chances of children being exposed to age-inappropriate content. Having conversations with your children, and making sure they know they can turn to you if they are upset by something, remains a central part of digital parenting.
