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MANY broadband providers promise that they can help keep kids safe online.

But what are they really offering?

We take an in-depth look, provider by provider, and offer some general tips on family broadband in this guide.

Parental control software

Earlier this year, many sources reported that the 'big four' ISPs - BT, TalkTalk, Sky and Virgin Media - had promised that new users would have to 'opt-in' to get at porn when they took out a new broadband contract.

That's not quite what they said.

It's much more accurate to say that they agreed with Government to make it more easy for their customers, particularly new ones, to set up parental control software.

Control software is far from a blanket block on the internet's dirty bits: it is fully customisable - many choose to make it harder to view violent sites or for children to share personal information, for example - and often includes extra features such as 'homework time' for the youngest internet users.

Less positively, parental control programmes can never give parents complete control: they can go wrong or tech-savvy kids can get round them.

Let's take a look at those pros and cons in more detail: provider by provider.

TalkTalk: Homesafe

TalkTalk are very proud of their Homesafe software, which is free for all their broadband customers.

It's the only broadband provider to offer blocks at server level, which means that sites will continue to be blocked whichever device is used to access the home connection.

As phones, games consoles and MP3 players go online that, we think, is its most invaluable feature: all the other protection software we discuss below is installed on a computer and its blocks will only apply on that computer.

Homesafe's parental controls fall into two categories: Kid Safe and Homework Time.

Kid Safe is what you want to block content: it allows parents to select broad categories which will then be restricted.

There are nine categories including Suicide & Self-Harm (most used category, according to TalkTalk), Violence & Weapons, Filesharing and Social Networking.

The disadvantage, compared to the parental control packages below, is that these blocks affect all users so families have to find a balance when children of different ages are sharing a connection.

The exception is Homework Time which lets parents set a time to block access to social networking and game websites, either 7 days a week or Monday to Friday.

As of October 2011, more than 150,000 TalkTalk customers have downloaded HomeSafe and the provider has blocked a million websites. It's by far the most proactive parental control option available.

BT, O2 and Sky: McAfee family protection

They might give it different names but BT, Sky and O2 are all offering parental controls through McAfee.

All three offer the software for free, even though with some deals (e.g. BT broadband's 10GB package) customers have to pay for the full McAfee security package.

The software allows users to put each user of their computer into a group, from 'Young Child' to 'Adult'.

Users can then set different levels of control for each group so the adults of the family can have a different level of control to the kids as follows:

• Time limits: how long each user spends online
• Block lists: users can block up to 35 categories
• Email alerts: to let you know if anyone has gone over those time limits, or posted personal information such as phone numbers, addresses or used swearing or sexual words
• YouTube video filtering

Plusnet Value offers much the same thing for £2 a month, while Plusnet Extra customers get the software for free.

Virgin Media: Security

Virgin Media Security's Parental Controls offer much the same protection as the above, except that it's provided by RadialPoint.

The controls allow users to:

• Screen out offensive material by pre-defined age categories and for individual users
• Add exceptions or block specific sites
• See a history of sites viewed, including those that were blocked

Orange: McAfee 2012+

All Orange home broadband customers get 12 months of McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2012+ with Parental Controls.

Customers can secure up to three PCs with the new security software and after the first 12 months they can either cancel the service or continue to receive it for half price on the second year.

The software controls available are much like the McAfee protection detailed above.

Staying safe online: tips

As we mentioned above, however, parental control software is far from an internet safety cover-all.

Personal information

Perhaps the biggest concern is the control of personal information.

Although some of the software above offers alerts when address information is given out, more insidious personal information sharing - a school or sports club name or arrangements for meeting up with friends - are much harder to catch.

Educating children about what sort of information is considered personal and that, once information is published online, anyone can share it could be a good step here.

"Advise your children not to post any pictures, videos or information on their profiles, or in chat rooms, that they would not want a parent or carer to see," child safety body Think u know advises.

Unwanted content

All the software above can be changed with an administrator password; if kids know the password or it's left logged-in they can simply go and change the settings.

But it's not just sneaking around that's a problem: sites can simply slip through the net.

Parents concerned that children could be accessing violent or sexual content could try keeping the home computer in a public space and explaining to kids the dangers of clicking on unknown links and banner ads.

According to one study released in 2011, 14% of children aged 6-10 have encountered adult content online.

Illegal downloading

Parents concerned that their children may be downloading content illegally can block peer-to-peer filesharing sites using the software above.

Some parents will be concerned with the effect such activities can have on their broadband deals as much as their legality.

It's one of the things to think about when considering the download allowance your broadband deal needs to have, alongside factors such as:

• The number of people in your house using the internet at once
• How you use your internet - for browsing or downloading
• The times when you use it - it's busier and slower in the evenings

Find out more about download limits here.

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