Iomart Group is Awarded UK's First Child Safety Online Kitemark Certification

Tim Loughton, Minister for Children and Families, announced the certification today while his keynote speech in London at the BETT Show, the biggest educational research exhibition in the world.

The Kitemark is designed to help consumers identify internet filtering software that has been designed to a high standard and which is both effective and easy to use. The Kitemark aims to give parents confidence in such products, to encourage new product development, and most importantly, to help reduce the amount of harmful content seen by children.

The Kitemark

In obtaining the Kitemark, Netintelligence was vigorously tested to ensure that it met a range of criteria including its ability to block harmful sites whilst allowing access to suitable internet content, flexibility, performance, security and ability to function across a range of operating systems and browsers.

The Kitemark is the latest accolade for Netintelligence's online child safety scheme. Last year it was named Security Project of the Year at the inaugural UK Computing Security Awards for its role in protecting the 270,000 laptops issued to low income families in accordance with the Government's Home Access Scheme.

"Netintelligence offers a complete security solution with all the support that users need. Its parental controls allow carers to have confidence in the internet, which can be a wonderful tool for education and learning."

MacSween added: "Netintelligence's market credentials were proven when it was selected by Becta's approved suppliers, including Comet, XMA and Centerprise, to provide the internet safety/parental control solution on every laptop distributed pursuant to this agreement the Home Access scheme.

"We said at that time that this was a very strong validation of the technological capabilities of our software and service, and that we believed Netintelligence to be the most comprehensive internet management tool available and but the award of this first UK Kitemark lends huge credence to our belief."

The Home Access Scheme

The Home Access Scheme was launched by the former Labour Government and managed by Becta, which promotes the innovative use of research throughout learning, to ensure low-income families benefited from the educational and social advantages afforded by the internet.

Congratulating Netintelligence on their award, Children and Families Minister Tim Loughton said: "The internet is a fantastic resource however it's vital that the Government, parents and businesses work at the same time to make sure children and young people are kept safe online. We know that pursuant to this agreement half of parents use parental controls and that many would welcome a Kitemark to help them better understand how to keep their children safe.

"That's why I'm delighted that today BSI have awarded the first Kitemark for parental control software to Netintelligence. The standards set by BSI are rigorous and the availability of Kitemark certified software will help give parents confidence that their children will be protected from harmful or inappropriate content on the internet. I hope that other parental control software providers will follow suit and demonstrate their products are evenly effective."

The cloud applications hosting brand of iomart Group

Netintelligence is the cloud applications hosting brand of iomart Group, which recently announced a 36 per cent growth in earnings in the first half of last year, rising to GBP 11.4 million from GBP 8.4 million.

Software certified by the Kitemark scheme promises to block inappropriate content, block communications via internet-based services that are inappropriate, and prevent unauthorised users from changing or disabling the access control settings. They as well allow for parents and carers to provide an appropriate level of protection either through the use of default settings or configuration, and to update products within the terms of any licensing or subscription requirements.

Netintelligence is the cloud applications hosting brand of managed hosting and cloud services company iomart Group plc. Netintelligence is leading the market in delivering web based fully managed, internet security services for consumers and businesses. Netintelligence offers the straightway generation of internet security products - the 'online', or cloud, security service to IT resellers.