Sky has announced that it will be enabling its porn-blocking Broadband Shield for all users going forward, including existing users. While Broadband Shield has been available for a few years, Sky says only 5-10% of people opted-in to using it, meanwhile in an 'auto on' trial performed by the company last year, two-thirds left the shield switched on.
Sky's brand director of communications products, Lyssa McGowan said:
“Our experience has shown that this “Default On” or as we call it “Auto On” approach leads to much greater use of filtering. Last year, we adopted “Auto On” with some of our existing customers which we found delivered much high engagement of Sky Broadband Shield. Around two-thirds of customers we rolled it out to have continued to make use of the software.”
While 'Auto On' will be the default settings for new customers, existing customers will be contacted and asked whether they want to enable it. If existing customers do not respond, Sky will switch the shield on for them anyway.
Sky's Broadband Shield initiative was launched as part of the UK government's Safer Internet project; The company says it will help the government in achieving its goals. Additionally, Sky says it will also work with Internet Matters, a non-profit which tries to keep children safe online with explanatory content for parents.
38 Comments - Add comment