The UK Council for Child Internet Safety is compiling a list of ‘safe’ websites for internet service providers, after a number of charities were blocked when tougher filters were introduced at the end of last year.
Last year, NSPCC Childline and the Samaritans' site was blocked by O2’s new filter and London Friend, one of the capital’s oldest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender charities was incorrectly labelled as a porn site by Talk Talk.
When O2 and Talk Talk were alerted both companies apologised and unblocked the sites.
The government then asked the policy advisory group, UK Council for Child Internet Safety to set up a working group to look at the effectiveness of family friendly filters last year.
Prime Minister David Cameron had previously assured charities that they would not be caught up in new filters, which are designed to prevent children from inadvertently accessing inappropriate content.
There are twelve members of the working group, including YouthNet, Brook and Stonewall and it is chaired by David Miles, director of the Family Online Safety Institute.
Miles told the BBC that: “We are building a master list of sites that the charities are helping us with and actively testing this right now.”
Members of the working group are:
- Family Online Safety Institute
- YouthNet
- Parent Zone
- TalkTalk
- BBFC
- Mobile Broadband Stakeholder Group
- Virgin Media
- BskyB
- DCMS
- BT
- Brook
- Stonewall
