Purple WiFi in Ashton-under-Lyne has been brought in by Canterbury Cathedral to manage its WiFi.
It comes following reports that 58% of venues worldwide have no filtering in place and that public WiFi is being used to access explicit content.
So, while visitors to the new Cathedral cafe will be able to browse the web while eating their cake and tea, they will have to stick to savoury sites.
“We have been offering a WiFi service for our Cathedral Lodge clients and customers for a while, but this is an internally managed system,” explained David Tunbridge, IT manager of Canterbury Cathedral.
“However, this system has never been made available to the public and although it works well for us, it requires a fair bit of administration, which is why we have been looking at alternatives for public WiFi access in our new Cathedral Café which opens on 20th February. Family-friendly access and legal compliance are very high on our list of priorities.”
Purple is a member of the Internet Watch Foundation, which means it blocks all IWF blacklisted URLS, it also allows venues to block specific content.
To date, the firm says that it’s blocked up to 10% of URL requests for content filtering customers.
“People expect free online access at public venues and businesses wherever they are. But the industry has a responsibility to make sure that these venues are aware of legal compliance issues,” added Gavin Wheeldon, CEO, Purple WiFi.
“At Purple WiFi, we make sure our venue customers can be safe in the knowledge that their WiFi is secure and meets industry best practice.”
