The company is trying to educate British parents on protecting kids online

Jun 17, 2014 20:33 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has announced a new Internet safety program in the United Kingdom that's supposed to help parents keep children safe when browsing the web.

Basically, Microsoft's new campaign involves training sessions that will take place in several locations across the United Kingdom and will include video tutorials to help parents enable safety settings on Microsoft devices, such as Xbox consoles, Windows Phones and Windows operating systems.

“Our advice is to really think hard about letting your children be online unsupervised. Make sure you use the tools available to block access to inappropriate websites, films and games - especially with phones and games consoles where you are less likely to be around. Parental controls aren’t the whole answer but they can really help,” Nicola Hodson, general manager of marketing and operations at Microsoft, was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

A survey conducted by Microsoft in the United Kingdom revealed that four million parents in the country haven't configured any safety settings on technology also accessed by children, which pretty much means that all were vulnerable when using the Internet.

Among the biggest threats for children browsing the web without such security settings in place, it's worth mentioning online bullying and adult content. According to the aforementioned source, these threats are affecting approximately one in eight kids who go online unprotected.