The 'Wallpaper' of Children's Lives
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Prominent internet companies are working towards better self—regulation in this area as part of the work of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) and we hope that commitment to make serious change will soon be forthcoming. We understand that discussions at European level this summer will determine the direction that this work will take and we await developments with interest.
38.
In addition, we believe that the role of education for children and young people around this issue is crucial. Schools, parenting organisations and some private sector organisations are already active here — both individually and collectively through UKCCIS — and there are some excellent programmes by, for example, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and Childnet, which teach children to think carefully about what they say and do online and to use a provider's privacy settings.We would like to see more support and advice for children in this area.
Access by children to age-restricted and adult material — through the internet and video-on-demand services
39.
Serious concerns have been raised with us about what is seen as the ease of access to age-restricted and adult material on the internet and through video—on—demand services, some of which allow unchallenged free access to pornography. This is in line with Professor Tanya Byron's 2010 report which found that parents' "top digital concern is easy access to pornography and inappropriate adult content" (Byron, 2010).
40.
The Review noted that there is some (but not nearly enough) good practice in place. For example, some television—on—demand sites age rate their content and offer a facility to block access to adult programmes.
Video-on-demand (VOD) is a system which allows users to select and watch programmes at any time the viewer wants through televisions, personal computers and internet—enabled devices. Depending on the VOD service they access, viewers can watch previously broadcast television programmes, films, or video works of any kind.
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