Keeping families safe online with Sky Broadband Shield

Back in February I wrote a piece on this blog confirming that Sky was going to introduce ‘whole-home’ filters.  We committed to doing this as we take our responsibilities to customers extremely seriously. We want our customers to enjoy the best of what the internet offers, and give them the ability to enjoy it in a safe environment.  Our job was to create a brilliantly simple tool that allows them to easily choose how much of the internet to let into their homes. 

Making good on that commitment, I’m pleased to announce that our brand-new online filtering service, Sky Broadband Shield, is available to all Sky Broadband customers from today. 

Since launching Sky Broadband we’ve offered our customers access to security software that can be downloaded to PCs and laptops.  Sky Broadband Shield takes this protection to the next level, filtering content across all internet-connected devices.  The average Sky home now has seven devices connected to broadband, so we felt it important that our product can be applied across the home, no matter whether someone is surfing the web on a PC, tablet or smartphone. 

So, how have we developed the system and how will it give parents greater confidence that they can keep their children safe online? 

The first step we took was to identify the types of online content that our customers told us they were most concerned about. We used this feedback to create ten categories which Sky Broadband customers can filter.  These include, for example, pornography, suicide and self-harm.  

The next stage was to find a way of identifying websites so that only relevant sites were included within these defined categories. To do this, we worked with the technology firm Symantec. They are world-leading experts in online protection and already work with lots of household names in the UK, including a number of mobile phone companies. Symantec maintains a regularly-updated list of sites which we’ve used to help populate our categories.

Each of the categories can then be switched on or off with a click of a button, in line with a customer’s individual wishes. 

To make things simpler still, we’re providing customers with the option of filtering websites by age, with the categories organised by age banding.  Customers can choose from settings which they’ll be familiar with from the way movies are classified – i.e. ‘PG’ (under 13s), ‘13’ (13 and over), and ‘18’ (adults only).  

Customers can even make decisions about individual websites, overriding the pre-defined categories.  By blocking or allowing access to specific websites, customers can have ultimate control over how they customise their filters.

Once the filters have been applied, we then need to make sure it’s only mums and dads who are deciding what to filter.  That’s why registered Sky account holders are notified of any changes that are made to their settings - to make sure it’s them, and not their kids, who are deciding what websites can be accessed.

Throughout the development of Sky Broadband Shield, we worked to the key principle of making it really easy by giving parents the information and tools they need to make the right decisions for their own home. 

Sky Broadband customers will be asked to make an active choice about the filters when getting online with Sky for the first time, or when they upgrade their routers. Next year, we will ensure that all customers will have made a choice about whether or not to apply whole-home filters.  And even Sky homes without kids will have an incentive to use the filters, as they also help provide important protection against viruses and malware. 

We think that using the latest online protection technology in this way will make a real difference for our customers as they look to protect their families. We also know though that technology can’t provide all the answers by itself and that parents also have an important part to play in keeping kids safe online. This is why we will also be supporting the launch of the Sky Broadband Shield with a customer awareness campaign that will promote online safety and in particular encourage parents to engage more fully with their children about the issue.

For more information on this Sky Broadband Shield, please click here.