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A new study from Guest Metrics, which has a vested interest in selling content filtering solutions, claims to have identified “widespread failures in public WiFi compliance” after it identified that 80% of the venues it tested had no content filtering (no age checks, no splash pages, no logging) to protect children from adult content – a key part of the UK government’s new Online Safety Act (2023).
According to the study, many of these networks were powered by BT WiFi and Sky WiFi, which — despite offering filtering capabilities — had not configured or enforced safeguards at the “infrastructure level” (network level). At least one national leisure operator, partnered with a local council, was also found to have a fully open WiFi network in children’s areas. In addition, one venue certified under the “Friendly WiFi” scheme failed to block pornography.
The study doesn’t name and shame any of the venues, but it does go on to claim that public WiFi networks are “increasingly used by offenders to bypass home filtering, remain anonymous, and access illegal material“. For example, it highlights how the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reports that offenders actively use public networks to avoid detection, while the UK’s CEOP command (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) lists unfiltered public access points as a known vector for grooming and content access.
J.Robinson, Founder of Guest Metrics, said:
“The venues are at risk, but so are the infrastructure providers. If your WiFi is publicly accessible, unfiltered, and used by children — you’re now legally exposed, whether you’re the venue or the provider.
We’re not just talking about compliance gaps — we’re talking about venues where a child could access Pornhub on their phone in a swimming lesson waiting area.”
The risk here is that, under the new act, operators of such public networks face new responsibilities and requirements to ensure the connectivity they provide keeps to the law. Failing to do so could, at an extreme, result in an Ofcom investigation, as well as the potential for hefty fines (up to £18m or 10% of global annual turnover with larger firms) and reputational harm. But the rules are a bit softer for smaller operators.
However, we had to dig a little bit deeper than the press release in order to discover that this survey was actually based on direct testing of just 32 businesses in Hampshire of various sizes and types (conducted last week), which is a tiny sample size for such claims. But it does still flag up an area that some people may have overlooked, even if a more detailed, extensive and independent study is really required to do this justice.
At the same time we shouldn’t forget that there are also growing concerns about the OSA going too far, particularly with systems like Age Verification, which are being applied to systems and services that extend well beyond the politically promoted areas like pornography (here). Not to mention the data privacy and security implications of all this.