We know it’s important to stop children from accessing inappropriate content.
You can control what content is accessed via BT's Parental Controls. All our BT Broadband and BT Mobile customers get them for free.
There are two types of controls:
- BT Broadband and BT Wi-fi use BT Parental Controls.
- BT Mobile uses BT Mobile Parental Controls.
BT Mobile offers free parental control services that you can tailor to limit the content your kids can access on mobile websites. They’re set to our ‘Light’ setting when you activate your SIM.
To customise your filter level, go to www.bt.com/mymobile and choose the setting you want.
What levels of protection are available?
BT Mobile offers three levels of content restriction:
- Strict: Blocks content suitable only for ages 12+.
- Light: Blocks content suitable only for adults.
- Off: Allows all content.
BT Mobile Parental Controls may not work abroad.
Content that is restricted on the "Light" setting for BT Mobile parental controls
The Light setting blocks access to the following types of content:
- Alcohol: Sites promoting, glamourising or encouraging excessive drinking in a way that's aimed at children or might be appealing to them
- Criminal skills: Sites providing information, resources, equipment or methods used in crimes or used to avoid getting prosecuted for such crimes
- Drugs: Sites which promote, offer, sell, supply, encourage or advocate people to grow, make, distribute of use illegal drugs, pharmaceuticals, intoxicating plants or chemicals and their related paraphernalia
- Gore: Sites with excessive and graphic violence and/or sites featuring pain or injury being inflicted on people or animals. That might be things like dismemberment, torture and sadism, and overly explicit horror movies
- Hacking: Sites promoting or providing the means to practice illegal hacking or other unlawful activities using computer programming skills
- Hate: Sites encouraging hostility or aggression towards, or the denigration of, individuals or groups on the basis of their race, religion, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, and so on. This includes site justifying inequality, aggression and hostility through purported scientific or commonly accredited methods
- Pornography: Sites with explicit material designed to cause sexual excitement
- Self-harm: Sites which advocate, normalise, or glamourise ways to harm yourself
- Sex advice: Sites providing sex information, techniques, exercises and products. Also sites with explicit or detailed discussions of sex and adult sexuality
- Suicide: Sites advocating or glorifying suicide or that help people to commit suicide
- Tobacco: Sites promoting, glamorising or encouraging smoking in a way that's aimed at children or might be appealing to them
- Violence: Sites which promote or educate visitors on how to cause property damage, physical harm or death with homemade weapons, explosive devices, or other criminal violence
- Texts to 18+ services
We block HTTP and HTTPS websites. In HTTPS, the 'S' stands for secure. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted and hidden from us.
Content restricted on the "Strict" setting for BT Mobile parental controls
All the content on the Light setting, plus unmoderated social networking sites, online dating and chat rooms.
Who decides what content should be restricted?
The mobile industry asked the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) to decide what content should be rated "18". So it's in line with the BBFC's classification guidelines for TV and film.
Find out more about the guidelines
If you believe a website or content has been misclassified, please get in touch with us.
What about illegal content?
Things some people find okay might be thought inappropriate by others. That's why we've a framework based on BBFC standards. But some content is just plain illegal. So, for example, we work with the Internet Watch Foundation to ensure we block all child abuse images.
If you stumble across an image or video online which you suspect shows child sexual abuse, you can report it securely and confidentially to the Internet Watch Foundation at www.iwf.org.uk >
How do I manage parental controls for BT Wi-fi?
If you're not already using BT Parental Controls, you'll need to activate them if you want to block certain types of content on your BT Mobile phone when you're on BT Wi-fi. You can check whether BT Parental Controls are switched on in the settings at www.bt.com/mymobile.