Making the web safe for children

Question

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?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

GoogleSafe wrote on 10 Mar 2005:
[nq:1]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?[/nq]
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.
*********** drives the Web. *********** 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.

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

Usenet · Answer

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

Usenet · Answer

"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 ***** 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 **** 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!

Usenet · Answer

Levi wrote on 21 Mar 2005:
[nq:1]"The only way to make the Web safe for children is to keep children off the Web. One might as ... a very true statement but in todays world, could be said to be breaching on the concept of personal rights.[/nq]
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.
[nq:1]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.[/nq]
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.
[nq:1]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.[/nq]
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.
[nq:1]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.[/nq]
When your kids come to my house, they may not *** on my floor, even if they do that in their parents' house. If they want to *** 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.
[nq:1]I tried the google safe site and still found I could access ***** sites by using derrogatory terms. This obviously is not going to be of much help.[/nq]
Nothing is perfect, and trying to make the world a safe place in every respect is a lost cause.
[nq:1]I too agree that many parents are hypocritically in their concern for internet safety when they have no problem letting ... their should be more security of these search engines protecting their child. As many may say practice what you preach![/nq]
Right.

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

Usenet · Answer

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.

Making the web safe for children

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