Set up and use BT Web Protect

Once you have turned on BT Web Protect, it will take up to two hours for your service to work.

You can turn off BT Web Protect by logging in to My BT and scrolling down to ‘Manage my extras’ and then selecting Turn Off in the ‘BT Web Protect’ panel within the 'Your included extras' page. It will take up to two hours for your service to be removed.

It will take up to two hours for any changes to your BT Web Protect service to take effect.

If the website you are trying to access is considered to be potentially harmful by BT Web Protect, you’ll see a warning page in your browser. If you’d still like to access this site, you can override this page by selecting the ‘Continue anyway’ button when you have cookies enabled. If you attempt to visit this website again at a later point you will still receive the warning page.

If you are trying to access a secure site (starting with https) that is considered potentially harmful by BT Web Protect, you’ll see a white screen instead of the warning page. To view this site you will need to turn off your BT Web Protect.

How to turn off BT Web Protect

How to enable cookies

You can check if BT Web Protect is on by visiting My BT and checking the status in the ‘BT Web Protect’ panel within the 'Your included extras' page. If it says ON then your BT Web Protect is on.

After switching it on, BT Web Protect it will take up to two hours to begin working.

Once the service is active, if the website you are trying to access is considered to be potentially harmful by BT Web Protect, you’ll see a warning page in your browser.

There's no technology that can guarantee to detect 100% of harmful sites. The rapidly changing content and expansion of the Internet makes it impossible to guarantee that something will not slip through. We do everything we can to provide the highest level of protection available and our third party supplier updates the list of dangerous sites on a regular basis.

This is a copy of what a BT Web Protect warning page looks like:

BT Parental Controls and BT Web Protect are two separate products which protect against different types of online threats and you can have both services switched on and working at the same time.

As they use the same technology, if you have both services active and you attempt to visit a website that exists in both the BT Parental Controls inappropriate content category and in the BT Web Protect harmful website category then you will see the BT Parental Controls blocked page only. Access to the site will be blocked unless you override the page by selecting the Allow access if you are the account holder button and entering your BT ID.

BT Web Protect and BT Virus Protect are two separate products which offer different levels of protection against online security threats and you can have both services switched on and working at the same time.

As both products include warning pages if you’re about to visit a potentially harmful website you may get a double layer of protection by being presented with two warnings. You can override both warnings if you wish to continue to the site.

Other internet security software will work with BT Web Protect.

BT Web Protect will work on BT Mobile when browsing online provided that your device is connected to BT Wi-fi at home on your BT Broadband or on a BT Wi-fi hotspot when using your BT ID. BT Web Protect won’t protect your mobile device when connected to 3G or 4G mobile data connections or other wi-fi networks.

BT Web Protect helps to prevent infection from viruses, scams and phishing attacks by warning you if you’re about to visit a potentially harmful website. It does not contain any parental controls filtering of inappropriate content. If you would like help to keep your children safe online, you can get BT Parental Controls. It’s free to BT Broadband customers and with no software to download, it's quick and easy to set up. You can completely personalise it to your family's needs.

What is BT Parental Controls?

Yes, BT Web Protect will block HTTPS sites if the site is categorised as potentially harmful. In this case, you'll not see a BT warning page but a browser message saying that it cannot connect to the webpage.

No personal data is collected.

Your BT Web Protect on and off settings are managed through My BT using your BT ID. Only the account holder can access and change these settings. If BT Web Protect is turned off an email will be sent to the registered email address of the account holder to confirm this. If you believe that someone has obtained your details or you have shared your details, then we recommend changing your password. You can switch BT Web Protect back on from any device when you log back in.

Reset your BT ID password

The warning page appears to let you know that the website you are trying to access may expose you to viruses, scams, and phishing attacks.

You can continue to visit the page at your own risk if you wish by selecting the ‘Continue anyway’ button on the warning page when you have Cookies enabled. If you attempt to visit the same website after 3 hours on the same device you will receive the warning page again.

No, you will receive a warning page every time you visit a potentially harmful website to ensure you continue to get protection against any new threats to your device or personal data. If you wish to continue to the site you are trying to access, you can override the warning page by selecting the ‘Continue anyway’ button on the warning page when you have Cookies enabled. If you attempt to visit the same website after 3 hours on the same device you will receive the warning page again.

BT Web Protect will not protect you when you are using a VPN connection as this uses an alternative network.