Telenet fully commits itself to safe Internet for all children

Telenet fully commits itself to safe Internet for all children

Mechelen, February 19, 2024 – Telenet is committed to providing safe Internet access for children. For that reason, in addition to its existing services, Telenet will develop a completely free tool for Telenet and BASE customers to protect young children from inappropriate online content. Through this commitment, Telenet confirms its full support for the approved Parliamentary resolution initiated by representative Michael Freilich on this issue.

Context

The Internet plays a crucial role in our daily lives, offering countless opportunities in the fields of education, communication and entertainment. However, Telenet recognizes that unrestricted Internet access can pose certain risks for children. A Parliamentary resolution submitted by representative Michael Freilich that called on the Belgian government to take steps to protect young children from inappropriate online content was recently approved. Safe Internet access has always been a priority for Telenet and it is now supported by its Safesurf and Safespot+ offerings, among others. Telenet will now go one step further by developing a comprehensive solution to protect children from inappropriate online content.

Safe Internet already inherent to Telenet's current offerings

Currently, Telenet already offers several services to provide a safe web environment for all customers. Safesurf is a solution that works in the background and ensures that recognized phishing websites are blocked in the customer's home network.

In addition, Telenet also offers Safespot+, a comprehensive solution that focuses on protecting customers' home networks, devices and digital health (parental control). Thanks to the parental control function, customers can designate which devices are used by whom, and can subsequently filter specific content and choose when their children can access the Internet. Safespot+ is included by default in Telenet's ONEup bundle. For other customers, the service is offered for €8 per month. Our Safesurf and Safespot+ products block approximately 2 million threats per day.

At the end of last year, Telenet and BASE deployed a new platform to protect their customers from "smishing," a form of phishing via SMS messages. The new platform is a self-learning tool that recognizes a variety of patterns, such as phone numbers that send lots of messages or suspicious links that are being sent around. Since its launch, over 10 million phishing messages have already been detected and blocked. A similar system for fraudulent phone calls also already exists. This system intercepts around 125,000 fraudulent incoming and outgoing calls on our network per month.

Free parental control tool

Telenet and BASE aim to protect their customers' children from harmful content on the Internet by offering a parental control system for fixed and mobile Internet. For that reason, Telenet and BASE wish to offer their customers a free package, to which customers can voluntarily subscribe (opt-in system). The development of this package has already commenced. Once available, Telenet and BASE will launch an information campaign to clearly and transparently inform their customers about the existence of this free package. The system will provide effective parental control functions to filter and block undesirable content.

Dieter Nieuwdorp, Chief Commercial Officer of the Residential & SOHO Business department:

"With the increasing digitalization of our society, the importance of cybersecurity is also increasing enormously, in particular regarding the protection of our children from inappropriate content. Telenet and BASE have a crucial role to play in this and are already offering solutions today. However, we do not hesitate to take the lead, and so we are going one step further by developing this free package. In this way, we are taking responsibility and we wish to strive for a safer web environment for our youth.”
Bart Boone
Bart Boone Woordvoerder, Telenet

 

 

 

 

 

About Telenet SA

As a provider of entertainment and telecommunication services in Belgium, Telenet Group is always looking for the perfect experience in the digital world for its customers. Under the brand name Telenet, the company focuses on offering digital television, high-speed Internet and fixed and mobile telephony services to residential customers in Flanders and Brussels.

Under the brand name BASE, it supplies mobile telephony in Belgium. The Telenet Business department serves the business market in Belgium and Luxembourg with connectivity, hosting and security solutions. More than 3,000 employees have one aim in mind: making living and working easier and more pleasant.

Telenet Group is part of Telenet Group Holding NV and is a 100% owned subsidiary of Liberty Global. Liberty Global is one of the world’s leading converged video, broadband and communications companies, innovating and empowering people in six countries across Europe to make the most of the digital revolution. For more information, we refer to www.telenet.be

The Telenet newsroom can be found at press.telenet.be

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