Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has become the first UK airport operator to be certified as offering safe, child-friendly WiFi at East Midlands Airport (EMA) under a government-backed scheme.
As the region’s gateway to mainland Europe, the US and Mexico, EMA serves 4.8 million passengers annually. The airport extended its free WiFi access for passengers from one hour to four. The service is available in all the main passenger areas including the check-in hall, bars and restaurants, at the gates and at arrivals.
Passengers travelling through the East Midlands hub can now do so with the reassurance that the airport’s free WiFi network will filter out inappropriate content. The government-initiated standard for public WiFi was launched in 2014 to ensure public WiFi meets minimum filtering standards, particularly in those areas where children are present.
“More and more of the 62 million passengers we welcome to our airports every year choose to connect to the free WiFi we offer, whether that’s to check flight details, catch up on emails or chat to friends and family before they fly,” said Tim Hawkins, chief strategy officer at MAG.
“As I’m sure many parents know, children also want to use their connected devices when they are at the airport and, as a group, we know that is our duty to keep them safe online. Friendly WiFi provides further reassurance to parents, and all our passengers, that they can browse safely.”
Airports and other facilities displaying the Friendly WiFi symbol have WiFi filters which deny access to inappropriate content, including indecent images and advertisements or links to such content.
