Sky Broadband Shield is an online protection tool offered for free by Sky. It protects you from harm online.
If you have Sky broadband, you may have noticed that you also have a service called Sky Broadband Shield. But what is Sky Broadband Shield?
Quite simply, Sky Broadband Shield is Sky’s online protection tool. You access it online and you have your own online dashboard, which lets you control what Sky services your family can access. It also helps you control the devices connected to your Sky broadband network.
Related: How to set up your Sky Hub
Sky Broadband Shield also protects you from phishing. Phishing is the name given to the practice of creating websites that look like genuine websites, but aren’t. Phishing websites are created by criminals who want to steal your personal information. So for example, a criminal may create a website that looks like PayPal simply to capture your login and password information. Sky Broadband Shield will alert you whenever it suspects that you have visited a phishing website, so you are not duped. Another thing that Sky Broadband Shield protects you from is malware-infected websites. These websites may contain viruses and malware; and if they do, Sky Broadband Shield will alert you.
What are Sky Broadband Shield’s Key Features?
With Sky Broadband Shield, you can set age ratings for specific content. So for example, if you have downloaded an 18-rated film, you can restrict access to younger people. You can set custom age settings, or you can select from the following three pre-defined restriction settings:
– PG: Suitable for everyone;
– 13: Suitable for teens and older;
– 18: Suitable for adults only.
You can also restrict certain types of website, to protect younger people. However, you can also set a ‘watershed’ time for your Sky services to switch to an 18-age rating if you like. So for example, you can set a 10pm time for this to coincide with then your children go to bed.
How do I get Sky Broadband Shield?
This service comes as default with any Sky broadband package. It is automatically switched on, so if you are a new Sky customer, you will be protected right away. If you are an existing Sky customer and you do not have Sky Broadband Shield, all you need to do is ask Sky and they will set it up for you.
If you are reading this and you want to know how to turn off Sky Broadband Shield, you can do so at any time by signing into your Sky account with your Sky iD. To do this, visit broadbandshield.sky.com, login, and you will then be presented with an option to switch it off. It is important for us to point out though that it will take at least 15 minutes from turning Broadband Shield off for you to be able to access previously restricted content. This is to prevent accidental turn off.
