Firefox Made Safer with 'Click to Play'

What happened?

Mozilla said that version 14 of Firefox, due in July, will not allow plug-ins such as Flash, PDFs and Java to play without asking you first, in a bid to boost security. Instead of playing videos, for example, Firefox will display an icon telling you to 'click here to activate plugin'.

How will it affect you? 

When you visit a page with a Flash-based video, such as YouTube, the video won't immediately start to play; you'll have to click the icon to get it started. The system will be familiar to anyone using Firefox extensions such as NoScript, which prevents some ads and other content displaying. If that sounds terribly inconvenient, don't worry; when you visit a site frequently, you can change the settings to let content play and appear automatically.

What do we think?

We applaud Mozilla's 'safety first' policy, especially because attempts to attack PCs using hacked p lug-ins are increasing. Activating plug-ins might become tiresome, and there's a danger the 'click here...' messages could be used by hackers to tempt you into clicking malicious links. But the benefits outweigh the risks and inconvenience.