The majority of British broadband customers have not been sold on the government's drive to protect children from adult content by filtering it out at ISP level, according to figures published on Wednesday.
An Ofcom report reveals just 4 per cent of new Virgin Media broadband sign-ups are opting to filter out or block pornographic material. The other 96 per cent seem happy for it to accessible. Just in case.
Virgin's figures compare to 5 per cent of new BT and 8 per cent of Sky customers who are opting in, following the government-mandated family-friendly network-level filtering introduced in December.
The discrepancy between Sky and Virgin can be partially explained through an installation technicality that only allows Virgin Media to offer the filter to less of its new customers.
Bypassing
Ofcom's report said: "The majority of new Virgin Media installations involve an engineer visit. Virgin Media believes that, in many cases, the engineer runs the broadband activation process and bypasses or ignores the filtering choice.
"It has recognised that this is a failure in the process and indicated it is taking steps to address this gap."
Elsewhere in the report, it was revealed BT has been the most active in blocking web content featuring pornography, nudity, self-harm and suicide. However, it is also extending the cull to sites focused on alcohol, tobacco, dating and social networking. And the rise in VPN popularity will be another issue to tackle.
BT filters all 14 of the possible categories, which also include crime, drugs, file-sharing and hacking, while Virgin chooses to filter only six.
- This is everything you need to know about the UK porn block
Via Telegraph
