Failure of web safety locks
Broadband providers’ child safety locks are unable to block extreme violence, pornography and self-harm material on social media sites, The Daily Telegraph has found. Inappropriate content can be accessed on sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, even when explicitly filtered out in parental settings.
BROADBAND providers’ child safety locks are unable to block extreme violence, pornography and self-harm material on social media sites, a Daily Telegraph investigation has found. Images of people being beheaded, memes with suicidal messages, graphic porn and tutorials showing how to buy drugs online were accessible on sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, even when explicitly filtered out in parental settings.
Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, last night said the discovery underscored her calls for new legislation to force tech firms to remove dangerous and graphic images.
The major broadband providers tested by The Telegraph – Sky, Virgin and BT – said their child protection settings could only block access to social media sites, but not filter material once children were on those platforms.
The findings come as the Government faces increasing pressure to impose a legal duty of care on technology companies to protect children and remove harmful content.
Sky said it now intends to change its labelling and literature to warn parents that its Broadband Shield filter cannot block harmful social media content.
Ms Longfield said: “We are often told by the big social media companies that parents need to step up to the plate and take more responsibility for what their children access online. We’d agree they do, but when the harmful content on some sites is still visible, despite parents actually using tools provided to block it, that undermines that call.”
Sky, Virgin and BT offer parental settings to block specific content such as pornography, suicide, self-harm, violence, gambling and material on drugs.
Tests showed these filters effectively blocked individual websites that host such content, but the filters let through images of people being beheaded in Syria on Facebook, graphic images of self-harm and suicidal memes on Instagram, explicit pornography on Twitter and a Youtube video showing how to buy drugs on the dark web.
Sky said as its filters could not block content on social media sites, the onus was on those companies to ensure harmful content was taken down.
A spokesman said: “For too long, social media firms have allowed harmful content to go unchecked on their platforms; this has to change and regulatory oversight of online platforms is now long overdue. It’s critical that social media platforms quickly take action to protect vulnerable users.”
Virgin Media declined a request to comment but a BT spokesman said: “We’re always working to provide even better controls for parents and carers.”
The Home Office and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are currently drawing up a White Paper, due in the coming weeks, that is expected to set new regulations for tech companies.