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Sky is going to roll out its adult content filter over the next 10 days as part of a mandatory opt-in system to protect young internet users.
This means that all adult content will be blocked for Sky broadband customers unless they log in and manually change the setting.
The Sky ‘Broadband Shield’ will mean that adult content – that includes pornography, gambling, as well as malware – will be inaccessible for all users in a given household by default.
It’s part of David Cameron’s push for internet service providers to do more to protect the innocence of our nation’s youngsters browsing the web.
Lyssa McGowan, Sky’s Brand Director for Communications Products, wrote: “Once Sky Broadband Shield is active, users cannot access a filtered site unless they choose to log in and alter their settings.”
“Knowing our customers and the internet as we do, we believe this is the right and simplest solution to a problem we all know is out there.”
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One of the most common criticisms of ISP filtering services is that they commonly block legitimate, child-safe websites by mistake – sexual help advice pages for teens, for instance, have been reported as amongst blocked websites.
Other criticisms include the difficulty to be transparent with what ISPs are filtering, the inability to cope with context, and the ease of working around filters which creates an illusion of safety.