The Government has rejected calls to automatically block internet access to porn to prevent children from accidentally seeing it.
Ministers said the proposals were not widely supported.
The Government made its decision last month but has only now revealed its conclusion following a public consultation.
During the ten-week consultation, over 3,500 submissions were made and the majority did not support an automatic block.
If the Government had agreed to the block, it would have meant users would have to contact their ISP to view adult material.
Just over a third of respondent (35 per cent) supported ISP blocking.
The Government is said to be working with ISPs to encourage parents to use filters to block adult sites and verify ages of those setting up filtering controls.
Those that opposed the move said this could lead to non-pornographic material being blocked, such as sites dealing with sexual health and identity.
The report praised the four largest UK ISPs - BT, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Sky - for signing up to a code of practice and offering customers a choice of filters.
However, it added that providers should go further and actively encourage users to turn filters on.
Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, one of the campaign groups opposing default filtering, said: "This is a positive step that strikes the right balance between child safety and parental responsibility without infringing on civil liberties and freedom of speech.
"The policy recognises it is parents, not Government, who are responsible for controlling what their children see online and rightly avoids any kind of state-mandated blocking of legal content," he added.
-
Cleo attack victim list grows as Hertz confirms customer data stolenNews Hertz has confirmed it suffered a data breach as a result of the Cleo zero-day vulnerability in late 2024, with the car rental giant warning that customer data was stolen.
-
Lateral moves in tech: Why leaders should support employee mobilityIn-depth Encouraging staff to switch roles can have long-term benefits for skills in the tech sector
-
UK financial services firms are scrambling to comply with DORA regulationsNews Lack of prioritization and tight implementation schedules mean many aren’t compliant
-
What the US-China chip war means for the tech industryIn-depth With China and the West at loggerheads over semiconductors, how will this conflict reshape the tech supply chain?
-
Former TSB CIO fined £81,000 for botched IT migrationNews It’s the first penalty imposed on an individual involved in the infamous migration project
-
Microsoft, AWS face CMA probe amid competition concernsNews UK businesses could face higher fees and limited options due to hyperscaler dominance of the cloud market
-
Online Safety Bill: Why is Ofcom being thrown under the bus?Opinion The UK government has handed Ofcom an impossible mission, with the thinly spread regulator being set up to fail
-
Can regulation shape cryptocurrencies into useful business assets?In-depth Although the likes of Bitcoin may never stabilise, legitimising the crypto market could, in turn, pave the way for more widespread blockchain adoption
-
UK gov urged to ease "tremendous" and 'unfair' costs placed on mobile network operatorsNews Annual licence fees, Huawei removal costs, and social media network usage were all highlighted as detrimental to telco success
-
Labour plans overhaul of government's 'anti-innovation' approach to tech regulationNews Labour's shadow innovation minister blasts successive governments' "wholly inadequate" and "wrong-headed" approach to regulation
