Members of the UK’s regulated adult industry have announced their support for child protection measures such as content filters, but is calling for more work to be done.
While the UK industry is broadly in favour of filters, their limitations, particularly where overblocking of legitimate content is concerned, means that more than one solution is needed.
To demonstrate the wealth of filtering options available to parents, the industry has launched a new version of xxxaware – a site set up to inform parents of the options available to them.
Read Recombu Digital’s guides on installing free parental controls on Windows 8 and Mac OS XSeparate sections for PCs and Macs, phones and tablets, games consoles and apps provide links to things such as browser extensions which parents can install including things such as Bing SafeSearch, parental controls for Chrome and Firefox extensions.
Managing director of Portland Broadcasting Chris Ratcliff wants to spearhead frank and open debates with parents about online safety and give them the choice to install appropriate solutions for their family.
“However there are better filters available than those offered by the ISPs which are also less prone to overblocking. US company Metacert for example has catalogued over 700 million porn sites and has launched plug-ins for Firefox and Chrome as well as an iPad browser and an Android app.”
The first version of xxxaware was launched in conjunction with Safer Internet Day in 2013. As the new site develops, xxxaware will reach out to parents on social media to promote other options.
xxxaware also wants politicians to get involved in discussions as well as parents. Ratcliff added: “Since we launched we’ve had no contact from policymakers or anybody in government. We have to open a dialog with everybody.”
As a result of government intervention last year, the UK’s leading ISPs have agreed to install parental filters at the network level, meaning all devices using a home broadband connection will be subjected to the same content filters.
To date, BT, Sky and TalkTalk have all launched so-called whole home solutions, with Virgin Media yet to announce its plans. Plusnet has plans to launch whole home filtering later this year.
Part of an industry-wide initiative, xxxaware wants to encourage the uptake of the appropriate parental controls so that adults can continue to access the content they want, without risk to children.
xxxaware is run by Portland TV, a subsidiary of Daily Express owner Northern & Shell, and has the support of regulated porn companies including Paul Raymond Publications, Studio 66 TV and Intelligent ID.
Image: Flickr
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