Netintelligence, the cloud based security service from managed hosting services company, iomart Group, has been awarded the UK’s first BSI Kitemark for child safety online.
Tim Loughton, Minister for Children and Families, announced the certification today during his keynote speech in London at the BETT Show, the biggest educational technology exhibition in the world.
The Kitemark for Child Safety Online has been developed through collaboration between The British Standards Institution (BSI) – one of the UK’s foremost certification companies – the Home Office, Ofcom and representatives from ISPs and application developers.
The certificate is the first to be awarded by BSI for child safety online.
The Kitemark is designed to help consumers identify internet filtering software that has been designed to a high standard and which is both effective and easy to use. The Kitemark aims to give parents confidence in such products, to encourage new product development, and most importantly, to help reduce the amount of harmful content seen by children.
In obtaining the Kitemark, Netintelligence was vigorously tested to ensure that it met a range of criteria including its ability to block harmful sites whilst allowing access to suitable internet content, flexibility, performance, security and ability to function across a range of operating systems and browsers.
The Kitemark is the latest accolade for Netintelligence’s child safety online scheme. Last year it was named Security Project of the Year at the inaugural UK Computing Security Awards for its role in protecting the 270,000 laptops issued to low income families under the Government’s Home Access Scheme
Angus MacSween, chief executive officer, iomart Group, said: “It is a great honour to receive the UK’s first certification for child safety online. The Kitemark is instantly recognisable as a symbol for safety and reliability.
“Netintelligence offers a complete security solution with all the support that users need. Its parental controls allow carers to have confidence in the internet, which can be a wonderful tool for education and learning.”
MacSween added: “Netintelligence’s market credentials were proven when it was selected by Becta’s approved suppliers, including Comet, XMA and Centerprise, to provide the internet safety/parental control solution on every laptop distributed under the Home Access scheme.
“We said at the time that this was a very strong validation of the technological capabilities of our software and service, and that we believed Netintelligence to be the most comprehensive internet management tool available and now the award of this first UK Kitemark lends huge credence to our belief.”
The Home Access Scheme was launched by the former Labour Government and managed by Becta, which promotes the innovative use of technology throughout learning, to ensure low-income families benefited from the educational and social advantages afforded by the internet.
Qualifying families were able to apply for a Home Access grant to purchase a package consisting of a laptop, connectivity and support. Each package issued included pre-set parental controls and a version of the award-winning e-safety guide, Know IT All for Parents.
Ken Coveney, managing director of BSI Testing Services, commented: “Kitemark certified filtering products will give parents tremendous support and offer a level of control that does not compromise parent-child trust. The Kitemark’s integrity means that parents and carers will know they are getting a safer and more reliable product, which has been independently tested and will offer the most consistent level of protection currently available on the market.
“The standard has rigorous requirements and Netintelligence are to be commended at being the first to deliver a product that meets the tough criteria.”
Congratulating Netintelligence on their award, Children and Families Minister Tim Loughton said: “The internet is a fantastic resource but it’s vital that the Government, parents and businesses work together to make sure children and young people are kept safe online. We know that under half of parents use parental controls and that many would welcome a Kitemark to help them better understand how to keep their children safe.
“That’s why I’m delighted that today BSI have awarded the first Kitemark for parental control software to Netintelligence. The standards set by BSI are rigorous and the availability of Kitemark certified software will help give parents confidence that their children will be protected from harmful or inappropriate content on the internet. I hope that other parental control software providers will follow suit and demonstrate their products are equally effective.”
A free 30-day trial of Netintelligence’s parental control product can be downloaded from http://parentalcontrol.netintelligence.com.
About the BSI Child Safety Online Kitemark
The BSI Child Safety Online Kitemark is a certification scheme for internet website filtering software produced by software manufacturers. These products can be bought as stand alone products from computer retailers or come as part of an operating system or ISP package. Either way, the software’s ease of use, reliability, and performance must meet the scheme’s strict criteria.