Sky To Pre-Set Broadband Parental Controls

Sky has revealed it will be automatically enabling parental controls on its broadband services for all new customers.

From next year, Sky Broadband Shield will be switched on by default when the network is activated by a new customer, and will need to be turned off manually.

The operator says the move comes after it found nearly two-thirds of customers kept some form of parental control using Sky Broadband Shield.

Filtered

Currently, Sky Broadband Shield, which was launched in November 2013, allows users to filter what sites can be accessed through their connection, as well as protecting against malware-infected or phishing sites. It also features a watershed feature that allows users to adjust which use age rating options (PG, 13, 18, Custom or none) apply to sites visited on the network, and at what time of day they can be accessed.

However, now on the first occasion that a new Sky customer goes online, they will be informed that Sky Broadband Shield is on. It will be automatically set to 13 until 9pm and then 18 afterwards unless it is amended.

Customers can amend the settings or turn it off if they want, by logging into MySky with their password.

“Customers have really come to appreciate the value of Sky Broadband Shield in protecting their families from unwanted and potentially harmful internet content,” said Lyssa McGowan, Sky’s director of communications products.

“What we have learnt is that as well as the flexibility to set the right level of protection for their homes, they also want us to make it as easy as possible for them.  The simplest thing we can do to help them is to automatically turn on filtering and then allow customers to easily choose and change their settings. This means they can have complete peace of mind that they will protected online from the word go.”

Sky says that today’s announcement builds on its commitment to clamping down on adult content being seen by underage users. Back in January, the company introduced network-level content filtering software that blocks pornography by default, with users having to specifically opt out if they want to see such content.

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