Porn filters automatically switched on for new ISP customers - BT

BT has announced that from now on, new ISP customers will find porn filters automatically switched on when they subscribe to BT broadband service.

The move aims to protect children for pornography and make adult content available only to those of proper age. Moreover, BT will also implement new Parental Controls that are more extensive than its current free privacy controls, which cover only desktops and laptops. The new BT Parental Controls will apply to all internet-connected devices in the home, including game consoles, smartphones and tablets.

"New customers will have to make a choice on whether or not to activate the parental controls when setting up their internet connection for the first time," BT explained in a press release. "The option of having these controls implemented is pre-selected and customers have to confirm that choice or actively choose not to switch on the controls which block content potentially unsuitable for children."

"BT takes the issue of online child protection extremely seriously, and we are very pleased to be able to launch the whole-home filter to help parents keep their families safe online. It adds to the many tools we already make available for free to our customers. 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," added Pete Oliver, MD of consumer commercial marketing and digital at BT.

As previously mentioned, these filters will be automatically set up for new customers. When it comes to existing BT customers, meanwhile, the company will be contacting users sometime over the next year and notify them of the new controls. When contacted, existing users will be able to choose whether to implement the new controls or not.

This move is part of a larger strategy to make the online environment safer for children, making unsuitable content harder to reach. A current government campaign aims to protect children from pornography and, as part of this campaign, as much as 95 percent of houses currently connected to the Internet have by the end of the year to choose whether to switch on filters. BT and other major ISPs have signed up to this campaign and are taking measures to enforce it. TalkTalk and Sky, for instance, have already introduced a filter choice when signing up, while Virgin Media should implement a similar system soon.  

BT further notes that users will be able to turn off filters at specific times to have more control over the matter.