Advertising watchdog clears BT child protection ad

Advertising watchdog clears BT child protection ad The Advertising Standards Agency has rejected claims that a BT advert encourages children to go on the internet unsupervised.

The TV ad, created by advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, features single mum Jane and her partner Adam, played by Kris Marshall. The ad opens with Jane’s daughter slamming the door on her mum yelling “you don’t understand.” Meanwhile Adam thinks out loud: “Kids today, they think they know it all, they think they’re so mature, but they’re exactly the same as we were.”

Jane then expresses worry that her daughter is spending too much time on the net saying “she might… be a geek”, at which point a voiceover tells us “Unlike some broadband providers BT Total Broadband comes with parental controls as standard for as long as you want them, so you know your kids are protected.”

21 complaints were addressed to ASA claiming that the advert condoned children surfing the net unsupervised, which might result in children accessing unsuitable websites or meeting strangers online who could harm them. Nine of the complaints expressed that the advert was misleading because it suggested that BT’s software programme would protect children from all online threats. However, BT said that the advert demonstrated the need for parents to install child protection software in order to keep their children safe from harm. It acknowledged that no child protection software was 100% foolproof, but said that its advert did not claim to offer this, but simply showed that parental controls came as standard with BT total broadband and helped protect children online.

The ASA rejected the complaints because the advert showed that the mother, Jane, was concerned for her daughter’s welfare and showed her supervising her child’s internet use. The advertising watchdog also cleared a BT television commercial which shows Dragon’s Den star Peter Jones being harassed by gremlins after parents complained that their children were having nightmares because of the advert. BT had agreed not to broadcast the ad in or around programmes targeted at children, but some viewers said the restrictions did not go far enough. However, whilst conceding that the “pointy teeth, green-grey skin, large ears and goblinesque” features that characterised the gremlins could scare “very young children,” the ASA ruled that the creatures were evidently supposed to be “comedic rather than threatening.”

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