Less than 10 percent of new UK broadband users are opting to turn on an “adult network filter,” claims new report.
According to a new research report from Ofcom, majority of the broadband customers in UK are choosing not to use parental-control systems pushed on by the government on ISPs.
Last year, following the pressure from Prime Minister David Cameron, some of the country’s biggest service providers including BT, BSkyB, TalkTalk and Virgin Media had agreed in July 2013 to ask new customers about filters which blocked pornographic websites, as well as pages promoting self-harm or drug taking.
As part of the effort, new subscribers are offered the filter at the point of sign-up to make an “active” decision about whether or not they want to activate them.
The Ofcom report found that a vast majority of new broadband customers are opting out of the filters when prompted to enable them by service providers.
The report stated that of the four main ISPs offering a filter to the users at the point of sign-up, TalkTalk was the only one to report take-up in double digits.
The communications watchdog reported that TalkTalk, which launched the parental-control system in May 2011, reported significantly better take-up figures with 36 percent of customers signing up for it, followed by Sky with 8 percent of its users opting for the filter, BT with 5 percent of new customers signing up and Virgin Media with 4 percent take up.
While BT and Sky launched their filter services at the end of 2013, Virgin Media launched its filter, Web Safe, in February this year.
Ofcom however, noted that the figures represented take-up at the time of account sign up only, and said that it’s possible that more customers would have turned on the filters afterwards.
