Norton can't block Bing porn
As a followup to my post from Tuesday about the ability for someone to view porn from within Bing, I just heard from a Symantec spokesperson that the company's Internet monitoring and filtering service, OnlineFamily.Norton (review), can't yet prevent Bing users from searching sexually explicit terms for Web sites or videos. The company plans to add Bing to its protected search engines in the next release. Other major search engines, including Google, are covered by the software's SafeSearch feature.
In the meantime, Symantec recommends that parents use OnlineFamily.Norton to block access to all of Bing--which isn't particularly good for Microsoft.
OnlineFamily is a free Windows and Mac application that can be used to block sites and monitor a child's online behavior. Unlike some Internet-monitoring programs, it doesn't operate in stealth mode so, if parents use that feature, kids know that their Web activities are being watched.
Because Bing plays videos within its own site and doesn't require the user to click through, checking the browser history or using monitoring programs like OnlineFamily would only show that they visited Bing.com, not what videos they watched from within the site.
Larry Magid is a technology journalist and an Internet safety advocate. He's been writing and speaking about Internet safety since he wrote Internet safety guide "Child Safety on the Information Highway" in 1994. He is co-director of ConnectSafely.org, founder of SafeKids.com and SafeTeens.com, and a board member of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Larry's technology analysis and commentary can be heard on CBS News and CBS affiliates, and read on CBSNews.com. He also writes a personal-tech column for the San Jose Mercury News. You can e-mail Larry or follow him on Twitter @larrymagid. 
Google now comprises over 70% of searches, and Microsoft 8% which means millions more children are exposed to this on Google than they are on Bing. I don't see you calling them out for this problem. Why would that be?
The difference is that Bing will play videos and show images *within the search engine itself*.
Google Image Search will show still images inside Google, but only Bing will play videos within the search engine, without leaving to another URL.
Porn is images and video. As a parent, it *does not matter* the slightest to me whether the video plays on the spot or not. I don't want my children to be exposed even to the thumbnails.
Don't know about Norton. But the free Windows Live Family Safety can easily be configured to block video/image search on Bing or Google based on URL components. Symantec's confusing recommendation to block all of Bing does not solve the porn problem. Why not ask people to unplug the network cable?
If you really don't want your kids exposed to porn, lock them in their rooms, plug their ears with something rubber, cover their eyes and lose the key.
If you have a network connection, they will eventually find a way to view porn. The problem with Bing is that, unless you lock yourself completely in to MS products, those vids will show to your kids and you'll never know it. At least with Google you can choose products not associated with MS, meaning you have a choice.
Then figure in that there are other choices of OS, Windows Live Family Safety doesn't work on OS X or Linux. If a person has a child and that child uses any OS besides Windows, that child can see porn vids without ever leaving a trace behind or even having the click a link.
He...HE SAID BING PORN!
And AFAIK it doesn't play the entire video clip.
Unfortunately because of such reviewers crying hoarse, a great feature is going to be probably turned off just so they can shut up.
Proof read!
(psst cnet, raise concerns where it actually *counts*, not just to stir up useless bellyaching and fear mongering for parents. Google has a direct "Google Moderate SafeSearch is on" link and highlights the box to turn it OFF if you click on it. Srsly.)
I'm not wasting anymore time here... I'm going over to google to look at some porn images... I hope my mommy doesn't find out.
I bet terrorists have bung set as its default search engine.
Though Google is best, Google helps us to get answers immediately, yet Google makes us stupid. However we have to use Google, because we are not MR. Know-it-all.
If you want find some porns, then you can get, if you don't want, then no search engine will give.
Dude, not just focusing on the bad aspect of one thing, each thing has both good and bad field.
- by pentest June 5, 2009 10:31 PM PDT
- What about the copyright issues?
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