The Government welcomed the news that, from February, all new customers will be asked if they wish to activate TalkTalk’s parental control web service, HomeSafe. Currently, parents are not alerted to the existence of the software, which can block online adult content such as pornography, gambling and other inappropriate websites.

The idea of asking parents to make an ‘active choice’ about what their children could view online was a key recommendation in the Government’s Bailey Review of the commercialisation of children.

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said that the new service “will make it easier for [TalkTalk’s] customers to protect their children from harmful or inappropriate online content from whichever device is used in the home, be it a laptop, games console or Internet enabled TV”. He added that he wanted to see other ISPs make similar offers.

Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone added that “Active choice should go alongside good internet safety education, and – perhaps most important of all – conversations between parents and children about what they need to know to stay safe.”

via >Safer Internet Day: TalkTalk to force parents to make ‘active choice’ on web controls – Telegraph.