It is fairly easy to keep a parental eye on what your kids are watching on the TV in the lounge, but with home and public Wi-Fi connections becoming increasingly common, parents are inadvertently putting portable internet devices into the hands of their children.

"Many parents don’t even know the device can access the Internet", says Dan Makin, managing director of Censorit, a UK-based content filtering solution for handheld devices.

Censorit provides a web proxy service allowing parents to set up internet-enabled portable devices with an extra layer of content filtering through the "Censorit protection stack". The Censorit protection covers a global blacklist of websites unsuitable for children, as well as URL filtering, website classification and in-depth content filtering.

The system allows parents to monitor which websites are being visited and through a very simple web front end, block those that may be deemed unsuitable for their child. Conversely, a child may submit a request for a particular website to be unblocked, which the parent can then review and make an appropriate decision on.

"Ofcom recommended content filtering in response to the Byron Review, which raised the issue of the damaging digital content that kids can access. Censorit's solution is the first content filter designed to work on all the devices today's kids have, and it is simple for parents to use", said Censorit founder Dan Makin. "We are solely focused on safeguarding young people's internet experience by limiting inappropriate surfing."

Censorit’s service is available for £4 a month.

>> Website - Censorit