The Friendly WiFi symbol has been created and launched in collaboration with The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), initiated by Government and WiFi providers after concerns were raised by leading child safety charities that children and young people were being put at risk of viewing and accessing inappropriate material when using public WiFi. The commitment made by the main WiFi providers was that their standard public WiFi offering would automatically filter;
1. Webpages known to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) that depict indecent images of children and advertisements for or links to such content.
2. Pornography
The Friendly WiFi symbol is designed to help children, young people and adults navigate their way through the high street and when they are making choices on days out and holidays, giving the option to use a ‘Friendly WiFi’ venue to ensure that the public WiFi that they are accessing is filtered. It can be confusing for young people and children to understand what symbols mean, hence why the accreditation service has been launched to create one symbol which is easily recognised and gives the confidence that the WiFi is filtered and independently accredited.
The accreditation service will grow to include: –
Shops, Restaurants, Holiday Parks, Leisure Parks, Gyms, Hairdressers, Buses, Stations and much more.
Venues worldwide will be displaying the symbol to make it clear that their WiFi is ‘Friendly’ and will also provide access and linkage to the Friendly WiFi website for more information and help for their Customers.