Suicide sites more dangerous than porn claims TalkTalk’s Dido Harding

TalkTalk boss Dido Harding has urged the government to focus on the danger of suicide-promoting websites more than blocking pornography.

Suicide is the most commonly-blocked subject for TalkTalk customers using its HomeSafe network filter, ahead of self-harm, pornography, weapons and violence.

TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding said: “Suicide is more important to parents than porn, so why mandate [filters against] porn and not suicide?”

Read Recombu Digital’s guide to Parental Internet ControlsThe Guardian reports that Harding’s statement came in discussions with education minister Sarah Teather in May 2012, over the government’s plan to introduce automatic filtering.

Teather was also told that the government needs to concentrate on making all ISPs launch HomeSafe-style filters before it decides to make them mandatory.

Sky, BT and Virgin Media are all currently testing network-level filters which process all of your home’s internet traffic and block selected websites and content.

David Cameron has backed Conservative MP Claire Perry’s campaign to not only introduce network-level filtering across the UK’s four major ISPs, but to make users choose to opt-out instead of opting in.

Critics claim filters are easy for malicious or unsuitable websites to fool, undermine children’s trust of their parents, give parents a false sense of security, and condition children to live in a surveillance society.

More than 85 per cent of parents trust children aged eight or above trust their children to use the internet safely, and more than 67 per cent think the benefits outweigh the risks (Ofcom, October 2012).

Cyber-bullying and giving out personal details to inappropriate people top Ofcom’s list of parental concerns, with online content only fifth most important.

Children’s biggest online problems are websites that take too long to load, and seeing too many adverts, although more than one in five under-12s are bothered by either seeing things aimed at older people or that make them feel sad, frightened or embarrassed.