March 1st 2014
Virgin Media has introduced filters to help parents protect their children from vieiwing inappropriate material online.
BT, Sky and TalkTalk have already turned on their online filters, in compliance with an agreement with the government made last year. Like the others, Virgin has pledged to ask subscribers by the end of 2014 whether they wish to use the system.
The 'Web Safe' filter works at network level, therefore applying to all devices in a house connected by its router. At the moment, it blocks all access to sites featuring pornography, violence, hate speech, drug use, self harm and suicide. A more flexible system will be introduced whereby subscribers can exercise more choice over which sites they can and cannot access. It will work in conjunction with security solution F-Secure, which can be installed on laptops, tablets and smartphones to provide protection away from the home.
The ISP has also produced Switched On Families – a series of guides designed to help them set up and administer the filter.
