The UK has been kicking around the idea of blocking pornography and unsavory content at an ISP level for quite some time now. Today, the country finally announced a decision on the issue. The BBC reports that Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that the country is putting in place filters to prevent children from accessing porn on the internet.
Cameron said that the six providers of 90 percent of the UK's public WiFi (O2, Virgin Media, Sky, Nomad, BT and Arqiva) have agreed to apply family friendly filters across the public WiFi network "wherever children are likely to be present." What's more, phone providers have also agreed to put adult content filters onto phones automatically. To have these removed, you'll need to prove to your provider that you are over 18.
The changes are coming to home internet, too. The government has reached an agreement with TalkTalk, Virgin, Sky and BT that will ensure family friendly filters are available at an ISP-level. When someone sets up a new broadband account, the family friendly filter settings will be automatically selected. Clicking 'Next' will switch them on and they will apply to any device on your network. They can only be disabled by the account holder.
These in-home filters will be in place by the end of the year, while solutions for WiFi and phone service will be in play by the end of the summer.
