Making the web safe for children

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GoogleSafe - 09 Mar 2005 20:28 GMT

Google is the best search engine around and something we would want all
schools to provide as a wonderful research tool for students. However,
as most people know, it can return very offensive images and adult
websites in a search. For example, if a student was going to search for
information on the movie 'babe' most of the returned sites would be
adult.

Not too many people know about Google's adult content filtering. It is
the best adult filter available and is completely free. You can set it
by going to google.com and clicking on preferences. You will then have
the option of setting SafeSearch Filtering.

This is a good start, but may be hard to enforce. How do you keep
students from unsetting it? You also have the issue of not knowing if a
computer is set for safe searching. The Google page only tells you it
is in safe mode AFTER a search is done, which is really too late, since
the adult material may have already been displayed.

One can install software programs that block adult sides. A downside to
this is that every computer a child has access to would need the
software installed. What happens if they go on a field trip and use a
computer? There is also a cost issue. Lastly, the programs can be
easily uninstalled. Enforcement is difficult.

Another alternative is to use GoogleSafe.com
GoogleSafe provides an interface to Google's adult content filtering.
It returns the same listings as Google minus the offensive material.
You have the benefit of knowing beforehand that a search will not
return adult material. Teachers can enforce safe searching by
monitoring which search page is on the students computer. The
GoogleSafe page has a bright orange color that is easy to distinguish
from Google.

I would be interested in hearing about other solutions that people have
taken to address the problem of adult content search listings being
presented to students. What is your opinion of GoogleSafe as a search
option?

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CyberCypher - 09 Mar 2005 23:48 GMT

GoogleSafe wrote on 10 Mar 2005:
[...]

> I would be interested in hearing about other solutions that people
> have taken to address the problem of adult content search listings
> being presented to students. What is your opinion of GoogleSafe as
> a search option?

The only way to make the Web safe for children is to keep children off
the Web. One might as well jabber on about how to make cocktail
lounges, bars, and whorehouses safe for children. We don't make them
safe for children. We deny children entrance. But they get in anyway.
That's life. Today's American parents (I have two children, one of them
a 9-year-old with his own computer hooked up to the Web) are just too
hysterical and hypocritical about this kind of thing. The whole
country, in fact, is idiotic about such issues.

Pornography drives the Web. Pornography is legal in America. American
"family TV" and advertising are filled with what I would call "adult
content" (What an absurd euphemism!). If Americans weren't so
moralistically challenged, they wouldn't have to worry about their
children immersing themselves in indecent social, political, economic,
and military behavior (e.g., the war in Iraq).

Ignorance leads to error and misunderstanding. It's dangerous, not
"safe". American children are in danger because they live in America
and absorb what is laughingly called "American culture". That's why I
left America 25 years ago. It's a sick country.

Signature

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.
'Henry Kissinger once justified U.S. support for the Pinochet coup in
Chile by saying "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a
country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people."'
Time Magazine article http://tinyurl.com/4jtf8

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Levi - 21 Mar 2005 00:18 GMT

You said: "The only way to make the Web safe for children is to keep
children off
the Web. One might as well jabber on about how to make cocktail
lounges, bars, and whorehouses safe for children. We don't make them
safe for children. We deny children entrance."

That is a very true statement but in todays world, could be said to be
breaching on the concept of personal rights. Banning kids from the
internet or having them being monitored while in school is in and of
itself a long running issue in schools right now. In some of my
courses at the University of Alberta we are asked if we think it to be
right that students are monitored and have the internet censored for
their own safety.

I have discovered that some parents are outraged that we as educators
are trying to control what their child is allowed to do, some are in
strong support of the censorship and others dont care.

I tried the google safe site and still found I could access porno sites
by using derrogatory terms. This obviously is not going to be of much
help.

I too agree that many parents are hypocritically in their concern for
internet safety when they have no problem letting their children watch
some action flick where the hero rips apart his enemy then sleeps with
the girl as a "reward" but meanwhile if Susie looks up the term "babe,"
as in babe the pig and gets back results leading to porn sites that
parent is immediately outraged and cries that their should be more
security of these search engines protecting their child.

As many may say practice what you preach!

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CyberCypher - 21 Mar 2005 03:15 GMT

Levi wrote on 21 Mar 2005:

> You said: "The only way to make the Web safe for children is to
> keep children off the Web. One might as well jabber on about
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> That is a very true statement but in todays world, could be said
> to be breaching on the concept of personal rights.

Personal rights, human rights, any kind of rights at all are extended
to individuals by the powers that be because they are unable to deny
them except at their own peril.

> Banning kids from the internet or having them being monitored
> while in school is in and of itself a long running issue
> in schools right now.

The problem is overblown. There is only one point to consider: who
owns the equipment and pays for access? If it's your personal
property, then nobody but governmental regulatory agencies that have
the power to control and monitor access can or should say what you
access. But if you use the equipment provided and paid for by others,
you have to follow their rules. It's not a question of protecting
chilfren but of exercising the right to say how one's property is
used by renters and guests.

> In some of my courses at the University of Alberta
> we are asked if we think it to be right that students are
> monitored and have the internet censored for their own safety.

This is a phony issue. There is no question but that the university
has the right to monitor any use of its Internet access, no matter
who is doing the using, faculty, student, or administrator. The idea
that the university exists in any way, shape, or form to protect
students is absurd.

> I have discovered that some parents are outraged that we as
> educators are trying to control what their child is allowed to do,
> some are in strong support of the censorship and others dont care.

When your kids come to my house, they may not sh.t on my floor, even
if they do that in their parents' house. If they want to sh.t on the
floor instead of into the toilet bowl, and if their parents want to
allow them to do that, they should be sure to provide their kids with
an appropriate venue for such behavior. Respect for the rights of
others runs both ways.

> I tried the google safe site and still found I could access porno
> sites by using derrogatory terms. This obviously is not going to
> be of much help.

Nothing is perfect, and trying to make the world a safe place in
every respect is a lost cause.

> I too agree that many parents are hypocritically in their concern
> for internet safety when they have no problem letting their
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> As many may say practice what you preach!

Right.

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Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.
"Truth kills ¡V indeed it kills itself." Nietzsche, Das Philosophenbuch, III, 176

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Levis McMurray - 20 Mar 2005 23:37 GMT

I first would like to say that I had not heared about the "GoogleSafe" page
before and think it would be a great tool to use if it can guarantee the
security it claims. I think it would be beneficial for my own personal use
when searching the internet by cutting out any irrelevant material that i do
not care/or need to see.

All schools could have their computers set to google safe as the default
search page and/or default home page if they do not have their own personal
hompage.

I am currentlly nearing the end of my third year at the University of
Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta in the Education program. I am looking forward
to one day teaching English or ESL at the Sr. High level and I believe that
I would deffinately use this serach engine in my classes. Not only would it
disallow students from blatantly trying to retrieve inappropriate content
but it would protect the rights and vulnerability of those not looking for
harmful material such as younger students.

I am going to try out the searcj engine to see how it works.

from weirdikal_one

> Google is the best search engine around and something we would want all
> schools to provide as a wonderful research tool for students. However,
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
> presented to students. What is your opinion of GoogleSafe as a search
> option?

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safesearching@gmail.com - 24 Mar 2005 02:47 GMT

The tool is not perfect, but in my opinion better than traditional
keyword filtering software, since it is context based. For example,
searching for "breast cancer" returns proper results. In addition
Google "owns" the data and knows how to filter it best. Google has been
working on this technology for many years and is still perfecting it.
They do not really advertise it much.

There is an adult version of the site without the graphics and links to
kids sites. The url is http://www.googlesafe.com/basic
You can also just use Google.com and set the advanced settings to
safesearch mode. The GoogleSafe site has the advantage of providing
monitoring too (main focus is for schools), since you don't really know
what mode Google is in when preferences are set.

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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / March 2005

Making the web safe for children