Free WiFi and under 18s

[wkbode]

Does anyone have definitive information on the responsibilities and liabilities of providing free and unfettered WiFi to the public in places where under 18's would be able to use the connection? I have already spoke to OfCom and they were no help at all on content filtering, disclaimers or any other information. OfCom did try to say I'd would have to buy a licence for broadcasting WiFi and I said I would be using commercially available equipment that did not require a licence to broadcast.

[wardsidjame]

You need to be clearer on the location.

 

If this is a school then you have a duty of care to provide a safe environment, this includes web filtering and within this you should also be recording use.

 

If it is for something else then the rules follow, it depends on what you are providing and where. Within this you also need to make sure you have setup the terms and conditions of the use of service and you must log everything. If someone decided to pop in and go on something such as a torrent site or something worse the letter or police would turn up to the address the system is registered to.

 

I think under UK law you do have to provide at least minimal baseline filtering, so child porn, terrorism, etc, there are lots of ways to do this without buying expensive systems that schools need such as Internet Security or DNS Service for your Business or Home - OpenDNS, there are also off the shelf versions of this where you get your connection and then use their router, this does all of the checking, loggins, filtering etc to give you some sense of security.

[wkbode]

wardsidjame,

 

I have heard these points but can not find the "law" or guidance, or case law precedent outlining good practice and what the filters white or black list must or must not contain. We are a public space, a cafe, a shop a museum and a gallery. I wondered how Starbucks, BT, Stagecoach Bus, and most other coffee shops and the like are able to do it. It is not a matter of how to do it. It is the extent. As an open to the public place for all legal levels of social interaction, discovery, learning and exchange we are about being open. Safe yes, but as open as possible. So we want to apply exactly the right level of filtering as stipulated by industry standards and government guidelines not our own whim.

[wardsidjame]

They all use 3rd party systems, so the off the shelf way would probably be best, the big ones such as McDonald's use ones that Bt provide, I know some ISPs do this such as Sky and as part of the deal your businesslike becomes one of their hot spots, you would need to find out who will provide operator independent facilites.

http://www.wififoundation.org/legal for the legal

[wkbode]

wardsidjame, Thanks for the link. It looks like it will lead me to the truth. The WiFi Foundation have a product to sell so they of course will slant the truth. But they do offer some good links to relevant legislation! Thanks a bunch.

[Roberto]

wardsidjame,

 

I have heard these points but can not find the "law" or guidance, or case law precedent outlining good practice and what the filters white or black list must or must not contain. We are a public space, a cafe, a shop a museum and a gallery. I wondered how Starbucks, BT, Stagecoach Bus, and most other coffee shops and the like are able to do it.

 

They don't have the same duty of care and safeguarding requirements that a school or other similar educational establishment has, for a start.

 

It is not a matter of how to do it. It is the extent. As an open to the public place for all legal levels of social interaction, discovery, learning and exchange we are about being open. Safe yes, but as open as possible. So we want to apply exactly the right level of filtering as stipulated by industry standards and government guidelines not our own whim.

 

Annoyingly enough, I can't find the link just now, but a little while ago my college was sent a govt. publication that discussed how safeguarding, prevention of terrorism,etc. might apply to web filtering requirements. If you're an educational establishment then your filtering guidelines should be in line with your safeguarding policy, but I'd strongly suggest that any organisation that provides an internet connection to staff and certainly customers should be blocking the Internet Watch Foundation's watch list at a bare minimium.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Roberto

[wkbode]

Roberto, thank you for sending the link to the Internet Watch Foundation's watch list. Thankfully the website makes clear that nearly all UK ISP (including ours) has and blocks the list for all it's consumers already.

 

IWF URL List Recipients | Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)

 

" The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) provides a dynamic list of individual web pages with child sexual abuse content to its members, companies within their group and Licensees that have the ability to filter and block access to such content.

 

The following member companies and Licensees have voluntarily committed to block access to child sexual abuse web pages thereby protecting consumers of their services from being inadvertently exposed to such content. The list is supplied to IWF members including internet service providers, mobile operators, search and content providers and filtering companies as well as to Licensees. The companies below may deploy the list in different ways across some or all of their services and technology platforms.

There is an agreed self-certification process for verifying that those providers listed below as blocking URLs included in the list are testing their systems for doing so."

Internet Service Providers

BT

Claranet

East of England Broadband Network

Easynet

Eclipse

Exa Networks

Karoo

Kcom

Madasafish

Namesco

NDO

O2

Orange

Plusnet

Research Machines

SimplyNames

Sky

Talk Internet

Talk Talk

Tesco

The Cloud

Thus

UK Online

Virgin Media

Yorkshire and Humber Grid for Learning

 

 

 

Mobile Operators

3

O2

Orange

T-Mobile

Vodafone

 

Search and Content Providers

AOL UK

Ask Jeeves

BBC

Bing

Google

Yahoo! UK & Ireland

 

Filtering Companies

Bloxx

Blue Coat Systems

Censornet

Cisco

Commtouch

Fortinet Technologies

intY

Lightspeed Systems

McAfee

Net Intelligence

Netsweeper

Nominum

SecureWorks

Smoothwall

SonicWall

Sophos

Trend Micro

Webroot

Websense

Zscaler

Zvelo

 

 

Licensees

Cricket Communications

Dhiraagu

Meteor

MTN Group

[wkbode]

Blocking Good Practice | Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)

https://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/safeguardingchildren/b00222029/child-internet-safety

https://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/ukccis%20advice%20on%20child%20internet%20safety.pdf

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/ourwork/reports/response-to-dfe-consultation-on-parental-controls

 

The obligation to protect and filter lies firstly with the parent or carer. The responsible adult has the duty of care in applying restrictions, filters or information and guidance for each child. Parents and youth should be warned and informed that there is age appropriate information online available through a free WiFi connection that will help provide a safe experience for them. Links to pages with the relevant safe internet practice information can be inluded. We should include in our “disclaimer” a phrase that indicates that proceeding beyond the initial page has been done with permission and knowledge of a parent or carer.

Edited April 11, 2013 by wkbode