Speaking during the ‘Big Tent’ conference in near Watford today, Google warned against planned government legislation allowing private companies to provide an option to filter adult content at a network level.

The UK government has expressed plans to introduce a filter, by default, that would block online adult content, but Google argue that with this measure they are “deskilling” parents. It also means that if the government decides to go ahead with this action, web users would have to inform their ISPs if they want to view adult content.

Sarah Hunter, Google's head of UK public policy said Google was strongly in favour of education over technical measures, adding“none of us don’t want children to be safe online. What we disagree with is the mechanisms by which we protect our children. It’s not that easy and the solutions that are being discussed are not perfect.”