Sky Broadband Shield: moving to “default on”

Today we are announcing that in 2016, Sky Broadband Shield will be automatically switched on the moment a new customer activates their Sky Broadband. We will confirm the exact timing next year but it will ensure that from the word go, we are helping families being protect their children from inappropriate content.   We believe that this “Default On” approach will mean much greater use of home filters and ensure a safer internet experience for millions of homes.

The development of filtering systems like Sky Broadband Shield has been part of an industry-wide response to help make the internet safer for children.  There has been extensive marketing and advertising to make customers aware of the options as well as asking them to opt into parental controls when they set up their broadband. Despite this, take up has remained relatively low across all broadband providers.   

Earlier this year, we adopted a “Default On” approach with some of our customers which we found delivered much higher engagement and usage of Sky Broadband Shield.  This is why we have now decided to make it standard practice for all our customers.    

It came about as we looked for the best way to meet the Prime Minister’s objective of providing more protection for children when they use the internet.  He had outlined a number of things that he wanted internet providers like Sky to do. This included asking us all to reach out to the millions of existing broadband customers who had joined their internet provider prior to filtering becoming available.

In January, we started to email all our customers who had taken Sky Broadband prior to the launch of Sky Broadband Shield.  The email explained the benefits of Shield and gave them the opportunity to make a decision one way or the other. All the internet providers did something similar but Sky did something extra.  If our customers didn’t respond at all, then we switched it on automatically and gave the account holder the option to amend the settings or turn it off the first time they tried to access a filtered site.

Sky was the only broadband company to adopt this “Default On” approach to meet the Prime Minister’s request and it had a significant impact. If you look at Ofcom’s report published yesterday on the take up of filters, it shows that 70% of the millions of customers we contacted now use some form of filtering with 62% using parental controls.  By comparison, the Ofcom report shows take-up for the alternative opt-in model – just asking customers to choose – used by the other major broadband companies was between 5% and 10%.  What explains the huge difference?

We know that our customers appreciate and value having filters when they decide to turn them on.  However, when customers simply receive an email, see a web page or a pop up about their broadband filter settings they often prefer to ignore it or click away. They may be in a rush to set up their connection or in many cases don’t trust or read pop ups.  It’s not that they don’t want filtering they just miss the opportunity to turn it on when they activate their broadband and too often forget to switch it on later. 

So based on the successful implementation of “Default On” to existing customers, in 2016, Sky Broadband Shield will be changed so it is simply turned on when you activate Sky Broadband as standard.  As a default, the age filter will be set to 13 – so no access to sites unsuitable for anyone under that age - before 9pm with an 18 setting after that time.  The first time someone tries to access a filtered website, the account holder will be invited to amend the settings or turn it off altogether.  

To make sure we haven’t missed anyone, we are emailing customers who have joined us since Sky Broadband Shield launched to ask them whether they want it. If they don’t respond, we will turn it on automatically.

We have millions of customers so we know some of them don’t need or want filtering. That’s fine and it's quick and easy for account holders to turn it off. What’s important is that everyone has to make a choice rather than simply offered an option they can ignore.  The Government has welcomed our approach as a great way to help deliver the Prime Minister’s goal of making the internet safer for children.  We are the second biggest broadband company in the UK.  We hope that other providers will join us so the industry as a whole can truly provide the safest experience for families across the country.