YNOT EUROPE – To coincide with Safer Internet Day on Tuesday, the UK adult industry launched a new initiative designed to provide parents and other caretakers with information and resources to help them prevent children from accessing age-inappropriate materials online.

Developed on behalf of the industry by adult broadcaster Portland TV, XXXaware.co.uk offers advice and guidance for controlling everyday household gadgets that connect to the internet: family computers, touch-screen tablets, smartphones, game consoles and TV set-top boxes. The site points parents to free and low-cost access-control tools available from their internet service providers and device manufacturers.

Future plans include adding step-by-step guides for implementing age-appropriate controls. In addition, developers hope to incorporate reviews of product efficacy, case studies and parental feedback.

British Prime Minister David Cameron recently abandoned plans to mandate an automatic online block on adult content, calling instead for more to be done to support and inform parents about the risks to children.

“XXXaware.co.uk will give parents the choice, control and confidence to judge what is right for their children without affecting the civil liberties and access to content of others,” a spokesperson for the project said.

The online resource is edited by TV producer Anna Kieran, who has worked in the adult business since 1997. She is a founding member of the Adult Industry Trade Association (AITA), established to give the UK adult industry a voice and representation following changes to the government’s content ratings regulations in 2000. In addition, Kieran is the mother of two young children and passionate about child protection.

“XXXaware.co.uk believes that the best protection for our children from adult materials is through educating parents,” she said. “By creating a dialogue within the adult industry and launching this site, it is hoped that the uptake of available parental controls can be increased so that adults can continue to access the content they want without risk to children and without heavy-handed government intervention.”