York - world first ‘Friendly WiFi accreditation’

14 August 2015

York has been named the first city in the world to have its city centre WiFi receive ‘Friendly WiFi accreditation’.

The CityConnect public Wi-Fi network, delivered by Pinacl Solutions has received recognition from the RDI, trade body for the digital sector, for being a safe service for young people to browse the internet on.

The Friendly WiFi scheme is the world’s first accreditation scheme for public WiFi and it is the latest step in York’s digital journey which will see it become the UK’s first Gigabit city.

The scheme was created and launched in collaboration with the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), supported by the Government and WiFi providers after concerns were raised by leading child safety charities that children and young people were being put at risk of viewing and accessing inappropriate material when using public WiFi.

CityConnect WiFi provides a fully supported service which is free for users 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is of such high quality that it can support streaming services such as BBC iPlayer.The ‘Friendly WiFi’ logo will assure users the WiFi offered has reached an industry recognised standard level of filtering and that access to pornography and child abuse websites, videos and images are blocked.　

Beverley Smith of the RDI said "It has been a pleasure to work with York and Pinacl who have been focused on achieving the status of being the first city to be awarded the Friendly WiFi logo.　 Ultimately this is excellent news for all the WiFi users who visit York and I hope that there will be many cities who follow in their footsteps."

Roy Grant, Head of ICT at City of York Council said: "This is another first for York. CityConnect WiFi from Pinacl has proven popular with residents and tourists and we are delighted it has received the Friendly WiFi accreditation. It is important that children can browse the internet safely and we are pleased to offer this service in York’s city centre."