Parental Controls Roundtable

7th February 2011

Ed Vaizey (Chair)
Tim Loughton
James Brokenshire
Claire Perry, MP
David Burrowes, MP
Fiona McTaggart, MP
Baroness Howe
Ed Richards (Ofcom)
Reg Bailey (Bailey Review)
John Hubbard(Bailey Review)
Valerie O’Neill(Baycloud Systems)
Jon Hurry(BT)
David Wheeldon(BSkyB)
John Carr(CHIS)
Juliet Kramer (Everything Everywhere)
David Frank (Everything Everywhere)
Nick Lansman(ISPA) / Peter Robbins, OBE,(IWF)
Hamish McLeod (MBG)
Katie O’Donovan(Mumsnet)
Jon Brown(NSPCC)
Diane Sutton (NSPCC)
Mike Short(02)
Aled Miles(Symantec)
Andrew Heaney (TalkTalk)
Alex Birtles (TalkTalk)
Mike Galvin(UKCCIS)
Matt Rogerson (Virgin Media)
Duncan Higgins(Virgin Media)
Judith Grant (DfE)
Chris Dawes (DCMS)
Simon Miller(DCMS)
John Sexton(DCMS)
Dominique Lazinski (Last Press Label)

Detail

  1. Ed Vaizey opened the discussion. He welcomed the good work that had already been done in helping to keep children safe from harmful and illegal content online by UKCISS and ISPs. He was encouraged by the development of Talk Talk’s Brightstar and BT’s Cleanfeed products but thought that more still needs to be done. He had already received over 1000 pieces of correspondence from members of the public supporting efforts to reduce access to pornography online and wanted to see a simple and effective network level parental control offered to consumers.
  1. Clare Perry outlined her concerns: that as internet enabled technologies become increasingly prevalent in the home (citing the growth of Internet TVs in the USA) access to inappropriate content is an issue of greater importance to parents. Parental controls are widely available although relatively little used and can, when machine based be easily circumvented – they had been in existence for 20 years now and to only limited effect. What is needed is a network based offer. This is not a question of censorship but of offering consumers choice.
  1. Tim Loughton gave an overview of the work done by UKCCIS. He made clear the Coalition Government’s determination to give renewed priority and vigour to UKCCIS. It would also be for UKCISS to take this work forward. James Brokenshire noted that industry effort in this area lagged behind consumer expectation.
  1. Ed Richard’s was asked to give a regulator’s perspective. There is clear public interest in addressing this issue - regulation needed to reflect public concerns. The key issue is whether industry lead initiatives were moving quickly enough, if they did not then formal regulation might follow. Technologies now allowed for this.
  1. Mike Galvin provided an update on the work that has been done by UKCCIS on parental controls which were intended to tackle more than access to pornography, but extreme violence, drugs, and other harmful content as well. The partnership lead by UKCCIS would. UKCCIS hoped to produce guidance on parental controls by the summer.

ISP response

  • Representatives of the ISPs including: Talk Talk, BT, Sky, Virgin and Everything Everywhere, outlined the work they are already doing and current offer consumers which includes the offer of MacAfee based filtering software, as well as the Brightstar and Cleanfeed products referred to above.
  • Parents also needed to take responsibility for what there children accessed online and an information campaign would help with this (BT planned to launch such a campaign in March).
  • It would be difficult to offer products suitably tailored to parents needs.
  • No one size fits all response – multi-layered approaches will be most effective.
  • Business needed to respond to consumer pressure and that there is a case for re-looking at filtering at router and network level.
  • Commitment to how concerns set out by Ministers and Parliamentarians around access to pornography and other harmful (and/or illegal) content can be addressed.

Parliamentarians’ contributions

  • Fiona MacTaggert: Existing parental controls were often ineffective, the technology was complicated and did not always work. Parents too often did not have the appropriate skillset.
  • David Burrowes: Parental controls were often not effective in homes in which a number of children of different ages accessed the internet. What was needed was a simple opt in to a better
  • Lady Howe:
  • Industry capable of responding to need. Previously Communication Providers had calledcustomers to investigate and verify a sudden sharp rise in their bills.
  • Needed to be an ongoing, iterative debate that kept the "self-regulatory" process ahead of developments - or at least as close behind them as possible.
  • Better control of access to pornographic material could also limit access to harmful violent content.
  • Perhaps an argument that those benefiting most from carrying pornography should be from required to pay for any subsequent measures.

Next steps:

  • ISPA to organise a large event on internet safetyfor parliamentarians,interest groups and an invited public on either 30th/31st March (date to be confirmed). Claire Perry has been invited to speak. Nick Lansman has extended a speaking invitation to EdVaizey.
  • A further roundtable(in abouttwo months) to monitor progress on this and keep up pressure on the ISPs (Called by Clare Perry agreed by attendees). Ed Vaizey to Chair.

UKCCIS Action Points

  • Tim Loughtonto chair a discussion of the issuesraised at the roundtable at the nextUKCCIS Executive Board Meeting.
  • Mike Galvin(UKCCIS) will lead an industry onlymeeting toexplore next steps under the UKCCIS umbrellaand look at what industry might offer. This will be in addition to meetings of his project groupon parental controls.
  • Claire Perry to meet theUKCISS team to develop abetter understanding of the work that is being done there