Parents and children think there should be more blocks on adult content on the internet.
A survey by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) showed that 79 per cent of parents said they were worried about their child seeing pornography online.
It also found that 83 per cent thought there should be “robust age-verification controls” in place to stop under-18s being able to view such content.
Age-verification
Among children, 56 per cent of 11 to 13-year-olds were in favour of being prevented from seeing adult content, with only 14 per cent disagreeing.
Support dropped to 48 per cent among 14 and 15-year olds, and 37 per cent among 16 and 17-year-olds, but opposition remained low, at 18 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.
The study also found that 55 per cent of parents felt that age-verification blocks would be “very” or “fairly” effective at restricting content.
However, it was acknowledged that older, more technically-proficient users would find a workaround, and 23 per cent of children reported already knowing how to do this.
‘Extreme content’
Parents largely agreed that they held the primary responsibility for preventing their children from accessing pornography, but only half were already using site-blocking software or had safe-search functions in place.
Focus groups also revealed that parents were particularly worried about what they deemed to be ‘extreme content’, and believed restrictions would be the best way to limit access.