Comcast Hailed for Best Parental Controls

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation in Washington says that Comcast has made great strides in "thoughtful, family-oriented, digital design," and has removed the company from its "Dirty Dozen" list of companies it says have contributed to sexual exploitation.

Citing the company's use of Common Sense ratings combined with a "safe browser" option, the center says the cable operator now has the "best parental controls in cable."

It also points out that Comcast has made its adult channels harder to access, that its voice remote can blocks searches for that content, and that it has committed to promote online safety.

“Comcast has become an industry leader in thoughtful, family-oriented, digital design,” said Dawn Hawkins, executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, in a statement. “After a 5-year dialogue with Comcast, focused both on the risk of pornography exposure to young children on Comcast devices and necessary improvements to parental controls, we are grateful to acknowledge that Comcast has made a significant effort to improve family safety and digital well-being in these key areas.”

Comcast said in its own statement. “Comcast is committed to improving digital well-being for all of its customers. We welcome dialogue on how to continually improve on these measures from third-party stakeholders in family safety and digital health, including the National Center on Sexual Exploitation."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.