Disappointment
Nonetheless the government says Internet providers should encourage parents to switch on parental controls.
The rejection of the plans have not been well received by campaigners and child protection groups. Claire Perry, a Member of Parliament who led the campaign, said she was "disappointed" at the government response. Meanwhile the NSPCC [National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children] said parents' voices were not being heard.
Speaking to BBC News Perry said she was "obviously disappointed that the opt-in option has been rejected."
"Clearly that was not the preferred choice of the 3,500 people who responded to the consultation and we have to base policy on what's been received not what we want," Perry added.
Concern
The NSPCC also expressed its disappointment and concern. "Hardcore pornographic videos are just a few clicks away and a quarter of children have been sent unsolicited sexual material online," the child protection agency said.
"The best option to protect children is for adult content to be automatically blocked by Internet service providers," head of corporate affairs Alan Wardle insisted.
An automatic block would have meant users would have needed to actively request that pornographic content was made available by their ISP [Internet Service Provider].
"Positive step"
Nonetheless the government says Internet providers should encourage parents to switch on parental controls.
The rejection of the plans have not been well received by campaigners and child protection groups. Claire Perry, a Member of Parliament who led the campaign, said she was "disappointed" at the government response. Meanwhile the NSPCC [National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children] said parents' voices were not being heard.
Speaking to BBC News Perry said she was "obviously disappointed that the opt-in option has been rejected."
"Clearly that was not the preferred choice of the 3,500 people who responded to the consultation and we have to base policy on what's been received not what we want," Perry added.
Concern
The NSPCC also expressed its disappointment and concern. "Hardcore pornographic videos are just a few clicks away and a quarter of children have been sent unsolicited sexual material online," the child protection agency said.
"The best option to protect children is for adult content to be automatically blocked by Internet service providers," head of corporate affairs Alan Wardle insisted.
An automatic block would have meant users would have needed to actively request that pornographic content was made available by their ISP [Internet Service Provider].
"Positive step"
However, there are some that have praised the government response. Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, which is opposed to default filtering, said, "This is a positive step that strikes the right balance between child safety and parental responsibility without infringing on civil liberties and freedom of speech."
"The policy recognises it is parents, not government, who are responsible for controlling what their children see online and rightly avoids any kind of state-mandated blocking of legal content."
"Broken promises"
"The policy recognises it is parents, not government, who are responsible for controlling what their children see online and rightly avoids any kind of state-mandated blocking of legal content."
"Broken promises"
But such concerns over Internet freedom were dismissed by the Labour party who accused the government of putting the profits of internet giants ahead of the safety of children.
Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman accused ministers of "broken promises" over the issue, and said they had bowed to pressure from the Internet industry, which is opposed to restrictions on the lucrative pornography sector.
The report compiled by the government suggests that any block would be counter-productive Default filtering could create a false sense of security as not all harmful content would be blocked, some experts claimed. Furthermore it would not encourage parents to learn about keeping their children safe online.
"Warning signs, water wings and lifeguards are all useful aids to safety in swimming pools, but they don't prevent all accidents by themselves, and children still need to have swimming lessons and be alert to possible dangers," the report, which was released with on Friday, said.
"Opt-in" bill proposed
Baroness Howe, the wife of former Conservative Chancellor Geoffrey Howe, is launching a bid to bring about an "opt-in" system through the House of Lords. Lady Howe, an independent cross-bench peer, said, "I will be disappointed if this is left entirely to voluntary activity when a simple process like an opt-in system would protect children and help parents who can be less savvy with technology."
Some Internet companies such as Google do offer advice and tools to create a safer environment online. However even the search giant acknowledges that nothing can replace proper parental supervision.
Advice
On its website Google give a list of tips in order to maintain a healthy online environment for children.
Some options to help prevent a child's exposure to harmful content might include "placing the Internet-connected computer in a family room with the screen facing outward so you can see what's going on", Google suggests.
The company also offers tools to moderate searches. By default, Moderate SafeSearch is turned on, which helps to keep explicit images out of search results. If preferred, this can be changed to Strict filtering to help filter out explicit text, as well as images. This can also be locked through settings of the Chrome browser and password protected.
The NSPCC also offer some advice on its website on how parents might protect their children
Reports: BBC / Sky / Telegraph / Guardian / Independent / Daily Mail /
tvnewswatch, London, UK
On its website Google give a list of tips in order to maintain a healthy online environment for children.
Some options to help prevent a child's exposure to harmful content might include "placing the Internet-connected computer in a family room with the screen facing outward so you can see what's going on", Google suggests.
The company also offers tools to moderate searches. By default, Moderate SafeSearch is turned on, which helps to keep explicit images out of search results. If preferred, this can be changed to Strict filtering to help filter out explicit text, as well as images. This can also be locked through settings of the Chrome browser and password protected.
The NSPCC also offer some advice on its website on how parents might protect their children
Reports: BBC / Sky / Telegraph / Guardian / Independent / Daily Mail /
tvnewswatch, London, UK
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