The internet is a fantastic tool for learning and playing. But children today are exposed to risks such as cyber bullying, online grooming and access to inappropriate content. We’re working to make the internet a safe place for children to explore by offering free online safety tools, supporting online safety education and awareness, and working in partnership with charities, government and others.
We provide our customers with a large variety of free parental control tools (network and device) for home and mobile, public Wi-Fi, and on demand TV content. We also offer and promote tools to protect against cyber-crime and security threats.
We have trained staff in more than 600 EE stores to help parents set up their children’s mobile phones with the right controls to be safe. In addition, we offer ‘Set Up Safe’, a free SMS service to help parents set up their child’s phone with safety features, and also offer our PhoneSmart Licence which involves four modules, covering online hate, digital wellbeing, staying safe online, and digital & media literacy to prepare young phone users for life as digital citizens and reassure parents and guardians that their children understand phone safety.
BT is a founding partner of Internet Matters, an organisation that educates parents and teachers on keeping children safe online.
We support the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), who identify webpages containing child sexual abuse content so they can be reported and removed. We were one of the first UK operators to block such content to prevent accidental access.
Our partnership with the Marie Collins Foundation is supporting children who have been harmed and abused online, by delivering training to more than 7,000 frontline staff under their Click: Path to Protection programme.
We welcome the new Online Safety Act and hope it marks a turning point in improving safety and raising standards of behaviour online. From 5G misinformation to the way social media can perpetuate violence against women and girls, online harms have real world consequences. It’s great to see the UK leading on this and we hope others will follow.
