A worrying proportion of British businesses have failed to add suitable filters to their public Wi-Fi, according a new study.
Research conducted by AdaptiveMobile has indicated that three quarters of hotels and 30 per cent of cafés or restaurants in the UK allow Wi-Fi users access to pornographic websites. An even bigger proportion of these businesses allowed access to websites referencing drugs and weapons.
Net-security.org, meanwhile, has reported that whilst Britain scored somewhat poorly, the United States still has the higher proportion of businesses with little to no Wi-Fi filtration.
The release of these statistics has led to calls for businesses to place stronger filters on their Wi-Fi in order to prevent children from viewing this material on their web-enabled devices.
Andy Phippen, who is professor of social responsibility in IT at Plymouth Business School, was amongst those urging businesses to take this issue more seriously.
Speaking to reuters.com, he said: “Having filters in public spaces is just as important as other restrictions such as the smoking ban and modesty covers on adult magazines. The fact that this protection isn’t available in a significant proportion of publicly accessible sites will undoubtedly cause concern.
“However, we should also reflect on the effectiveness of some of those in place – simply having a filter doesn’t necessarily mean everything is protected.”
