Home Office in web porn blunder

Radio ad for online safety led unwitting users to adult sites

The Home Office came under fire today after a blunder that resulted in internet users being directed to pornographic websites.

The confusion centred on an advertisement for the Home Office Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre website, which is found at thinkuknow.co.uk, broadcast at the end of March on 96 Trent FM. 

The full advert stated: "What you say online isn't always what a paedophile hears. Giving out personal info could let a paedophile track you down. Be smart online, be safe offline. Visit thinkuknow.co.uk."

However, a listener to the radio station complained that, when she visited the website she thought was quoted, 'thinkyouknow.co.uk', she found that it contained links to websites of an adult nature including pornography sites.

UK advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld the complaint, noting that the ad had not spelt out the website address in full to listeners.

In making the ruling the ASA pointed out that the blunder was "particularly concerning" as the ad was aimed at teenagers and the service being promoted was to help them stay safe online.

"Although we recognised that there was no intention, we considered that a significant effect of the ad had been to indirectly publicise services which were unacceptable for broadcast, namely restricted adult material and other sexual services," the ASA stated.

In mitigation, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre said that it had only recently taken over the campaign from the Home Office and had no involvement with the ad.

Nonetheless, the Centre said that it was aware of the potential for misspelling the website domain name if promoting it in audio only, but believed that teenagers were accustomed to using abbreviations, such as 'u', when communicating with each other via text and email.

The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre added that it had cleared the ad in good faith and had no reason to believe the website name might cause confusion.

The ASA ruled that the ad should not be broadcast again in its current form, and that care should be taken to ensure that listeners are aware of the correct spelling of the website address should it be used in future radio advertising.