Child-protection software standard being finalised

A standard for software to protect children using the internet is being finalised by Home Office officials and developers - and PC vendors may be encouraged to preinstall a compliant product in new computers, a House of Lords committee was told yesterday.

The British Standards Institute (BSI) standard for content-filtering is being drawn up because it is hard for parents to choose between current products, which vary a lot in what they do and how well they do it, said Tim Wright, head the Home Office's computer crime team.

Software carrying a BSI-approved badge would be safe, easy to use and parents need have no reservations about buying it, he told a science and technology subcommittee investigating internet security.

He agreed that preinstallation, with the highest security settings as default, was "the next thing we need to look at".

Vodafone exercises content-blocking already on its internet mobile phones and several witnesses at the hearing rejected the idea that it should be enforced by legislation. Wright said the policy was more about self regulation.

John Carr, spokesperson for the Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety, claimed private-public partnerships were the most co-operative.

Jim Gamble, chief executive for the Child Exploitation and Protection Centre, pointed out the good response from companies across the spectrum – Microsoft being a key partner who has given up valuable advertising space to tell its audience of the threat from online predators.

But he stressed that parents also has a role to play in protecting children, who were particularly at risk of exploitation in chatrooms where it was easy for sexual predators to disguise their age and identity.

Gamble, who also monitors children-protection measures for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "As a serving police officer... I know that we can no more be on every street corner in London than we can be on every street corner of the internet."