BT beefs up parental controls to keep phones and tablets safe

Ban this sick filth! BT has beefed up its broadband parental controls to keep your phones and tablets safe from online smut.

BT's existing parental controls focus on desktop computers and laptops. The new network-based filter protects any device in your home that connects to the Internet over your BT broadband system, from PCs, laptops and games consoles to mobile devices like tablets and smart phones.

Tested by parental units recruited from Mumsnet, the new system has three levels -- strict, moderate and light -- to adjust the exact level of censorship protection for your family. You can also manually whitelist or blacklist websites you want to either block or unblock.

Cleverly, the filter doesn't have to be on all the time. You can set specific times for the filter to turn itself on or off: during homework time, for example, you can turn off the sites that distract the nippers. And once the little'uns have gone up the wooden hill to bedfordshire, the filter can turn itself off so Mum and Dad can settle down and enjoy the most hardcore grot the Internet has to offer.

To prevent your crafty kids using their hacker skillz to adjust the filter's settings, any changes require the account holder's password -- and any change automatically triggers an email to the adult account holder.

Everyone on BT broadband will have to decide whether to adopt the new controls: new customers will be asked whether to keep the controls in place or turn them off, while existing customers will be asked next year whether you want to turn them on.

How do you keep your younglings safe online? Is the Internet damaging to our children, or should we just educate them better? Tell me your thoughts in the comments, or on our squeaky-clean Facebook page.