Kids' ISP launches with UK censor backing

BBFC approves 18 rating on web sites

A mobile ISP with built-in content filtering has launched, offering UK parents the chance to limit their kids' web access to age-appropriate sites only.

The £19.99 service from Tibboh classifies web sites in the same way as the British Board of Film Classification certifies films – U, PG, 12, 15 and 18.

The idea is to give parents more granular filtering options than previous attempts at censorware, which are sometimes, as Tibboh says, "black and white" in their approach.

The BBFC is officially backing the launch, after Tibboh became the first ISP to comply with its online membership guidelines.

The filtering part of the service is hosted in the cloud, to help prevent net-savvy kids from tampering with it, and is based on Netsweeper and Tibboh's own proprietary technology.

It's a 3G wireless service, requiring a dongle, and has a 10GB per month data transfer limit.

Tibboh does not appear to support the R18 certificate, limiting the opportunity for adults to use the service to guarantee they only get the really good stuff.

We're not sure if it has any significance, but Tibboh is Hobbit spelled backwards.