BT has announced that new customers will from today have porn filters automatically switched on when they subscribe to its broadband service.

The company is also introducing new BT Parental Controls that go beyond the remit of its current free privacy controls, which only focus on desktops and laptops. The new controls will cover all internet-connected devices in the home, including tablets, game consoles, and smartphones.

New customers, says BT in a press release, "[will] have to make a choice on whether or not to activate the parental controls when setting up their internet connection for the first time," adding that "the option of having the controls implemented is pre-selected." You'll either have to confirm that you're happy with the pre-selected protection level, or actively choose to change the settings, which BT is keen to remind you might expose you to "content potentially unsuitable for children."

"BT takes the issue of online child protection extremely seriously, and we are very pleased to be able to launch the whole-home filter to help parents keep their families safe online. It adds to the many tools we already make available for free to our customers. We've been focused on the issue of online safety since we developed the world's first Cleanfeed filter to block child abuse images and made the technology available free to other ISPs across the world a decade ago," says Pete Oliver, MD of consumer commercial marketing and digital at BT.

If you're already a BT customer, the company will be contacting you sometime over the next year in order to make you aware of the new controls and give you the option to implement them or not.

BT, along with other major ISPs, has signed up to the government's campaign to protect children from pornography, which involves forcing 95 percent of houses currently connected to the internet to choose whether to switch on filters by the end of next year. Sky and TalkTalk have already launched filter choice at the point of sign up, and Virgin Media is set to introduce a similar system soon.

This story originally on Wired UK.