The Petition of a local women’s group in Wiltshire,
Declares that the Petitioners regard the accessibility of adult and pornographic material on the internet as having harmful effects on young people, both girls and boys; notes that a similar petition has been signed by 17 people; further notes the campaign of the Member of Parliament for Devizes to require internet service providers to introduce an “opt-in” filter for accessing adult material online, and declares the Petitioners' support for this campaign.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to encourage internet service providers to have an “opt-in” filter to prevent children accessing adult or pornographic material on the internet.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Duncan Hames, Official Report, 18 September 2012; Vol. 550, c. 7P.]
[P001121]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Education:
The Government, through the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), have recently consulted on options for parental internet controls which would improve children’s safety online. The consultation responses made very clear that parents want to take responsibility for their children’s online safety, and there was no majority support for any of the three options consulted on, including “opt-in” filtering (i.e. default filtering at network level).
Through UKCCIS, the Government have been encouraging the information and communication industries, including internet service providers (ISPs) to ensure that parents face an unavoidable choice in whether or not to have parental controls installed on their internet service or devices. Expert advice is that children have the greatest protection online if their parents engage with the issues on their children’s access to the internet. Relying on default filters on the internet does not encourage parents to engage with the issues and take responsibility for their children’s safety. It is not possible to filter all the potentially harmful content, helpful sites could be blocked as well as harmful ones, and filters do not deal with harms such as bullying, abuse or grooming.
Following the consultation, the Government now wish to go further than their previous approach. We are asking ISPs to prompt the setting up of parental controls by existing customers as well as new ones, allow those controls to be tailored more to individual children’s needs, and check that the person setting up the controls is over 18. The Government are also making clear that every part of the industry should be working on family-friendly internet access which is easy to use, and that we would like to see all internet-enabled devices equipped with tools to help keep children safe.