PRESS RELEASE
13 January 2011
BSI has awarded the first Child Safety Online Kitemark to help parents protect their children from inappropriate content on the internet.
Tim Loughton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, presented the first child safety online Kitemark to Netintelligence, the cloud based security service from managed hosting services company iomart Group, during his keynote speech in London today at the BETT Show, the educational technology exhibition.
Designed to provide parents with the confidence that harmful internet content will not be seen by children, the Kitemark requires internet filtering software to be easy to install, easy to use and effective in blocking inappropriate online content such as pornography, violence and racism.
The UK’s children have greater access to the internet than ever before, through PCs, mobile phones and even gaming machines. According to the UK communications regulator, Ofcom, three in four children aged 5-15 now use the internet at home - yet only 43% of parents of children aged 5-15 say they have controls or filtering software in place; a situation that has actually worsened since 2008 (49%)
In obtaining the Kitemark, Netintelligence was vigorously tested to ensure that it met a range of criteria including its ability to block harmful sites whilst allowing access to suitable internet content, its flexibility, performance, security and ability to function across a range of operating systems and browsers.
Ken Coveney, managing director of BSI Testing Services commented: “Kitemark certified filtering products will give parents tremendous support and offer a level of control that does not compromise parent-child trust. Parents and carers will know they are getting a safer and more reliable product, which has been independently tested and will offer the most consistent level of protection currently available on the market.”
Angus MacSween, chief executive officer, iomart Group, said: “It is a great honour to receive the UK’s first certification for child safety online. The Kitemark is instantly recognisable as a symbol for safety and reliability”.
Congratulating Netintelligence on their award, Children's Minister Tim Loughton said:
"The internet is a fantastic resource but it's vital that the Government, parents and businesses work together to make sure children and young people are kept safe online. We know that under half of parents use parental controls and that many would welcome a Kitemark to help them better understand how to keep their children safe.
"That's why I'm delighted that today BSI have awarded the first Kitemark for parental control software to Netintelligence. The standards set by BSI are rigorous and the availability of Kitemark software will help give parents confidence that their children will be protected from harmful or inappropriate content on the internet. I hope that other parental control software providers will follow suit and demonstrate their products are equally effective."
About the BSI Child Safety Online Kitemark
The BSI Child Safety Online Kitemark is a certification scheme for internet website filtering software produced by software manufacturers. These products can be bought as stand alone products from computer retailers or come as part of an operating system or ISP package. Either way, the software’s ease of use, reliability, and performance must meet the scheme’s strict criteria.
Software certified by the Kitemark scheme is designed to block inappropriate content, block communications via internet-based services that are inappropriate, and prevent unauthorised users from changing or disabling the access control settings. They also allow for parents and carers to provide an appropriate level of protection either through the use of default settings or configuration, and to update products within the terms of any licensing or subscription requirements.
About BSI Group
BSI Group is a global independent business services organization that develops standards-based solutions to improve management practices and promote innovation. BSI can help businesses, governments and other organizations around the world to raise quality and performance in a sustainable and socially responsible way. From its origins as the world’s first National Standards Body, BSI Group draws upon over 100 years’ experience to work with 66,000 organizations in 147 countries from its 50 offices. To learn more about BSI Group, please visit www.bsigroup.com/childsafety or visit www.Kitemark.com/childsafety
About Netintelligence
Netintelligence is the cloud applications hosting brand of managed hosting and cloud services company iomart Group plc. Netintelligence is leading the market in delivering web based fully managed, internet security services for consumers and businesses. Netintelligence offers the next generation of internet security products - the 'online', or cloud, security service to IT resellers. Netintelligence automatically provides a wide range of critical security and protection features direct to an end users computer via the cloud.
