Sky Broadband has announced that it will be automatically blocking pornography and all material deemed unsafe for children aged bellow 13. The company’s “Sky Broadband Shield” will be automatically switched on for all users “in the next few weeks”.
In a blog post, ‘Brand Director’ Lyssa McGowan, said that “what we’re doing now is simply making sure that the automatic position of Sky Broadband Shield is the safest one for all – that’s ‘on'”. She added that users will be able to disable the filter by changing their settings.
McGowan stressed that the decision isn’t too much different from the current situation, in that all users will be sent an email upon the filter’s activation, giving them option of whether they want to keep it on or not.
“From January, we’ll be emailing our customers who haven’t chosen to activate or disable Sky Broadband Shield explaining its benefits and giving them the opportunity to make a decision one way or the other. Customers can activate Sky Broadband Shield, adjust or decline it at any time. Or they can simply wait for us to turn it on.”
Sky isn’t the only ISP to have a filtering system – all UK ISPs must have such a system, but currently none of them switch it on by default. Sky will be the first to do so.
Source: BBC News
