Porn Company Exec Blames Google & Yahoo For Kids Accessing Porn
from the now-that's-impressive dept
We’ve seen all sorts of ridiculous things get blamed on Google and Yahoo, but I never thought I’d see this. An executive at an adult entertainment company is now blaming Google and Yahoo for not doing enough to stop kids from seeing porn. He claims that it’s all for the sake of protecting the children. Fascinating. If he’s so concerned about children accessing porn perhaps he should, I don’t know… stop making it? Just a thought.
Comments on “Porn Company Exec Blames Google & Yahoo For Kids Accessing Porn”
Probably Different Than a Google Job Interview
From the article:
“I do interview all of the Vivid Girls personally before we sign them to exclusive contracts,”
Misplaced blame... but not where you think
I absolutely agree that blaming Google and Yahoo for kids accessing porn is wrong and misplaced…
But Mike, so too is blaming the porn-maker.
That sounds awful close to censorship. Now, I’m not saying that if this guy decides “hey, my stuff is hurting kids, I should stop”, that it would be a bad thing. But insisting that he does is censorship.
As always, this blame and responsibility should be placed back to those who truly are responsible for the raising of children (and all things that go with it)… the parents.
But that’s been beaten to death around here, so I’ll digress. I just wanted to voice the opinion that shifting blame to the porn-maker is just as invalid and wrong as blaming Google or Yahoo.
Re: Misplaced blame... but not where you think
I just wanted to voice the opinion that shifting blame to the porn-maker is just as invalid and wrong as blaming Google or Yahoo.
So, Gabriel, googled “sarcasm” lately? Might explain what Mike was saying here.
Re: Re: Misplaced blame... but not where you think
Sorry, he cannot because then you would be to blame for him to google something and that is bad.
Re: Misplaced blame... but not where you think
Gabriel, I don’t see where Mike insisted that this person stop making porn. I think he suggested that if this guy thinks that porn is hurting children (which would appear to be the case judging by the fact that he has made the comments that he made) then maybe he should come to the conclusion that he should not be producing the stuff, much as you suggested.
Re: Re: Misplaced blame... but not where you think
Ah… but the porn-maker is not making the porn for the children. He’s making it for adults… well, in theory, at least. Honestly, he’s making it for anyone who’ll pay for it. He’s only going to admit to making it for adults.
My point is that the porn is filling a demand. It’s only in more strict and conservative cultures that porn carries the stigma it does here in the US. There is a legitimate market for this. So if we (as a single part of a larger community) decide that we don’t want our kids to have access to it, should we be able to make the moral decision that no one should have access to it? That it shouldn’t exist at all?
If you like gangster rap, how would you feel if I made and enforced the decision that you can’t have it just because I don’t like the idea of kids hearing it? After all, it’s “for the kids” that you’re being denied the choice of whether or not you listen to it. Same with porn.
So why should this porn-maker have to decide to not provide this product (that has legitimate demand) just because a small part of the market doesn’t like it?
BUT… to the point of the article: we already have laws that restrict the distribution of porn to minors. The question becomes ‘who’s the distributor here’. Google/Yahoo, or the site that posts the content? And that’s for the courts to decide. Personally, I think Google/Yahoo have no obligation to limit information. It’s up to us as responsible and enlightened people (sic) to decide what information to allow our children to access, and to help them on interpret it.
Re: Re: Re: Misplaced blame... but not where you t
I think Google and Yahoo should be clear on this; they aren’t ‘providing’ the content any more than the ISPs are, really. It should be the porn-maker’s job to make sure his site and it’s contents and ads are suitable for, or suitably kept from, minors. Most of what I mean by this is that [1.] the content shouldn’t be outside of proper age verification (whatever that’s determined to me), and [2.] ads (unless also in age-verified realms) shouldn’t be explicitly pornographic.
Re: Misplaced blame... but not where you think
That sounds awful close to censorship. Now, I’m not saying that if this guy decides “hey, my stuff is hurting kids, I should stop”, that it would be a bad thing. But insisting that he does is censorship.
I’m not insisting it at all. I’m just saying that if he’s so concerned about it, why is he making it?
I have no problem with him making pornography, if that’s what he wants to do. But it seems a little silly for him to make it and then complain about people seeing it.
Always Someone's Elses Responsiblity
Steven Hirsch “motherhood” comments point to two fundamental failures.
1. We have an endless stream of “demands” by persons/corporations that some third party must do “something” to stop the “public” from doing something “bad”. This is absurd. There is absolutely no logical rationale for EntityA to demand that EntityB stop EntityC from doing an activity that EntityA does not like! Due process anyone.
2. Security for websites is in some regards unobtainable. How is the website to know if the user is some 13 year old, someone who is 46, or even a pedophile? There is no way to really know.
Misplaced blame...
“If he’s so concerned about children accessing porn perhaps he should, I don’t know… stop making it? Just a thought.”
I thought it was obvious that porn-maker-man is not doing this out of concern for children. He is concerned that he will be held liable for children accessing his product. And this is a weak attempt to shift the blame.
Hmmm...
Blaming Yahoo and the Goog for kids accessing porn is dumb, saying it should stop being made, is fuckin’ lunacy. Just a thought.
Re: Hmmm...
“Blaming Yahoo and the Goog for kids accessing porn is dumb, saying it should stop being made, is fuckin’ lunacy. Just a thought.”
Taking it seriously is completely off the charts then.
bringbacktheporn.com
“I am fairly sure that if they took porn off the internet, there would only be one website left, and it would be called ‘bring back the porn'”
That said, of course its rediculous to blame Google and Yahoo — they even have a Safe Search option to avoid accidentally bringing up flagged material.
We should just legislate it so that porn has to be government sanctioned … maybe even make it so that ISPs can be filtered by a governmental committee to make sure that people only need to see porn if they really want. Hmm, come to think of it, why don’t we just take the internet away from everyone, its obviously too dangerous for us … and since we can’t control ourselves, what hope is there for the children?
Don’t blame Google or Yahoo, and don’t blame the porn industry. Blame ignorant, hypocritical, and lazy parents.
Sex is and always will be a human interest. I have a 13 and 11 year old… When they get interested in sex.. porn… etc… I will personally have whatever conversions I need to have with them to explain what its all about, the pros & the cons. The real stuff. Until then and even afterwards, I keep a close watch on what they see on the Internet, TV, wherever. Porn is only a problem when parents don’t talk to their kids before the kids discover it on their own.
Re: Re:
“Conversions?” Sounds scary. Conversations. I know. But conversions sounds funny.
Re: Re:
WOW! A *Thinking* Parent… Hats off to ya man!
Bill Cosby
Maybe the porn industry shouldn’t put their images on Google image search…and maybe they shouldn’t have any porn images on their entrance page before they get your credit card number…so they know you’re 18.
Stop making Pron?
Are you nuts!!!
Re: Stop making Pron?
I agree with you “Me” whole hartedly. For someone to say
“If he’s so concerned about children accessing porn perhaps he should, I don’t know… stop making it? Just a thought.”
he’s just playing to the bible thumpers in this country. You know the kind of people that think the idea of kids knowing about sex is wrong, and they shouldn’t know about it till they hit 18. Even ModMan is thinking clearly. It’s talking about it, and educating young ones about it that is the key. If you look at TV and media all over the world we are the only country the censors that kind of thing, but we still let our children watch day/evening TV that has 95% more violnece then other countries. In Europe nudity is perfectly fine for someone to look at at what ever age, but they do not have as much violence on broadcasted TV as we do.
I am under the personal belief that putting way to many rules on something will make them want to do it that much more cause its something that will give them a thrill to try and not get caught. Our child are desensatized to violence, but sex its self they aren’t so they try to see it every chance they get. The more they see it the more they will be less likely to be drawn to see it sinces its there. Newtons Law = everything has an equal and oposite reaction. You stop kids all you want, but the kids will always find a way to see it. simple as that.
Think about it.
Steven Hirsch (Vivid Entertainment) is right there should be better filters. Google and Yahoo should have acceptable content filters (like Websense) built in. Not only would it help protect users from unwanted sex ads, but it would be a better search engine. It would be great to search for Hilton without getting entertainment news about Paris (without doing a -Paris search) blocking entertainment as a category would be much better. Allowing “health” as a category but not “adult” would return medical breast information but not sex sites. Is it perfect, no, but its better then what we have today. Adult information isn”t going to shock me either way, but being able to trim down search results is getting more important all the time. Search companies need to understand it”s not just about digging around finding content anymore., its returning usable results.
I have more of a problem with kids access to violence, bomb making techniques and pediphiles. We have a problem with our priorities, and somehow they are really out of whack. Case and point (and also a show of hands), most would rather have their child go 2 an “R” violence related movie, than 2 an “R” rated sexual content movie. Would u rather have your child viewing sex, or massacre?? Would u rather have them thinking about “getting freaky”, or how 2 plan a mass killing/suicide. But sticking 2 the comments made, It’s ultimately up to the PARENTS to take care of what the child is viewing. Parents are so consumed with “working hard” at work, but the real work needs 2 be at home with getting 2 know your kids, and teaching them life lessons and setting standards of behavior.
Re: Re:
word.
Re: WTFudge
Actually, I’d rather have my kids viewing violent things than sexual things. They understand the difference between violent films and real life, and the chances that they’re going to go on a killing spree as a result are so minuscule that I’m willing to bet they turn out all right.
Back on topic, Google definitely helps me get porn. If they wanted to implement some optional filtering features… if they could do it correctly, I wouldn’t be opposed, but any solution I can envision right now would probably involve the excessive restriction of free information, and that’s not cool.
Re: Re: WTFudge
Mouahaha, yeah I guess you think that viewing pron will make them go out and try to hump anything that moves? First off, if they’re to do that, they don’t need pron to get the idea. Sexual disorder, as well as sociopath disorder, existed long before ze net.
How can they see the difference between reality and fantasy violence? Could it be because they were expose to it so early as children? Wouldn’t having their parents freak out over this make the taboo more appealing and harder to differentiate fantasy and reality?
I’m sorry, but I think WTFudge is right, I have a child, hoping to have more and I would rather find out he’s watching pron than finding out is watching violent contents or recipes for bombs or heinous sites. I was a teen once, and finding x tapes or magazine were awsome days :P, never got the urge to rape anybody afterward. Although I never had the urge to kill someone after a good Kubrik either.
In other news...
In other news, the RIAA is blaming Limewire for allowing kids access to music with explicit lyrics. Won’t somebody please think of the children?!
What an odd article. It manages to mischaracterize the story *and* introduce the biggest logical fallacy I’ve ever seen on Techdirt.
First, the guy didn’t “blame” anyone. He suggested that Google and Yahoo could do a better job in this area. That seems reasonable to me. Sure, Hirsch could have made concrete suggestions and come across better, but his basic proposition that search engines are not innovating in this area that many people think is important seems fair.
Second, the cheesy “…then he shouldn’t make it” argument is so far beneath the quality of thought I expect on Techdirt that I’m not sure where to start. Google and Yahoo are in the content indexing and distribution business (just look at images.google.com? If a content producer is concerned that a distributor isn’t doing a great job, is the answer really to stop producing the content? Should drug manufacturers who want pharmacies to put their products in child safe containers just stop making drugs if some pharmacies fail to do so?
Really, this is terribly weak article that sits at the border of cluelessness, dishonesty, and knee-jerk “for the children” demogaugery.
Random Thought
I think maybe it is the parent’s fault. How hard is it for a parent to monitor an filter thier child’s internet activity.
It is the same principle as it being the parent’s responsibility prevent there kids from playing mature video games, watching R rated movies, and listening to music with explicit lyrics.
It’s called parental responsibilty, maybe people should try it and quit blaming other people there shortcomings as parents.
Kids & Porn
If Mommy and Daddy do not want little Willie to see porn, they should first stop buying it and then regulate what their little Willie is doing on the internet.
The computer needs to be in the same room with mommy and daddy so that little Willie can not wank to shemale porn.
Mommy and daddy are the ones that are responsible for little Willies well being.
The purveyors of fine filth need not tell anyone how to run there lives.
porn and children
porn sites will keep doing their job and kids will keep surfing internet and search engines will continue to search everything on internet.
it comes back to parental-control.
Exessive Porn Would Do The Trick.
I’m so sick of porn now that I avoid it at all costs.
Exessive Porn Would Do The Trick.
I’m so sick of porn now that I avoid it at all costs.
Shelter Them From The World
Well, I don’t happen to think we should blame it on Google or the porn industry. Personally I don’t try to shelter my kids from everything in the world, but that’s not to say I allow them to search for porn. Once my 8 year old daughter and I were doing a Google image search for the ice hotel in china, and we got naked ladies. I laughed and hit the back button and told her sometimes that happens on the Internet and just go back and change your keywords. Kids are going to see porn someday as they grow, and it doesn’t upset me that it happens sometimes by accident through Google.
parents,
regulate your children
end of discussion
Another stupid fix for a complicated problem
I love all the easy fix solutions on the internet…The porn industry is all about one thing…KA CHING!!! (sp?)
Do we really think this guy cares about kids? er I mean “future stars”? Puhleez.
As far as parental control goes; in theory great, in practice…well? The bottom line is that the majority of parents control their kids about as much as they control themselves; can you spell OBESITY? No? have a snack and think about it.
Wouldn’t it be great if filtering software worked?
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to ensure that all children would be kept out of harms way in every area?
I love the whole freedom of speech “don’t censor me” angle. I’m sure George Washington would have thought it less than average not to have some requirement, say like a credit card, to view porn. If that is censorship then let the anarchy begin..uh I mean continue.
Let’s be honest the society that we live in today doesn’t care enough to act and doesn’t have the resources to fight one of the most lucrative business sectors in the world.
Short of disconnecting from the society as a whole the nations kids will be exposed to the ways of the world.
If your counting on Congress and the President and the Court, take luck and care.
Light into the darkness if you really must know… 😉
Not Just Porn.
How does Google or Yahoo know if it is a kid or an adult accessing the site???
Even worse though, how about those fanatical religous sites like Christian Catholic or Protestant sites or those evil Mormons which can brain wash kids. Awful!
(It’s the parents who need to set controls on the PC if they want to bubble wrap their kids from the real world.)
Re: Not Just Porn.
Stop blaming others...
Damn, stop blaming internet companies, and everyone else for your children being able to obtain porn. Why doesn’t the parent step in learn a little, and talk to and with their children… Wait that would be a novel idea, parents talking to their kids… na they just want the government to pass laws and sue companies rather than educating their own kin. If you feel porn is so bad and that your children shouldn’t be viewing it, talk to them, explain to them why you feel its wrong, show them why, and let them form their own ideas and viewpoints.
Misplaced Blame
Google and Yahoo send out spiders to scan as many websites as possible. during those scans the spiders will take information from inside the porn site. then it posts a link to that page that has the porn on it. The aggressive nature and Google make it an easy target.
There are commands that can be embeded into the website to keep the spiders out. but every search engine has different commands to stop thier spiders.
The porn company can do more to stop the problem. but so can the search engines.
When I was young… there was (believe it or not) no internet!
But yet, I still managed to find a suitable collection of porn :O
Porn? Oh no...stop me now.
I don’t get the issue here in the 1st place. If a kid sees porn what is the worst that is going to happen? Nothing. He/She will have questions, and probably talk about it inappropriately, but I don’t understand why people insist that children would have psychological problems with them. I lived in Eastern Europe for years and seeing porn on regular cable channels (not premium) at 8 p.m. was normal there. Did children watch them? Sure I’m sure some did, but most would rather watch something a little more interesting.
Children want to see porn here because it is forbidden. Just like anything else we “forbid”. There is more teenage drinking, and more teenage pregnancy in the United States then in most countries in Europe because it’s considered taboo & forbidden practices. In Europe kids are allowed to drink wine once in a while with dinner, and they do see advertisements with naked people on a regular basis. Our laws are actually “hurting” children more, and what’s worse – people’s attitude change because of these stupid laws, and what they thought was “normal” is now “wrong. Argh. Europeans are not used to these ridiculous laws – read this:
In the United States, the teen pregnancy rate is more than nine times higher than that in the Netherlands, nearly four times higher than the rate in France, and nearly five times higher than that in Germany.
In the United States, the teen birth rate is nearly 11 times higher than that of the Netherlands, nearly five times higher than the rate in France, and nearly four times higher than that in Germany.
In the United States, the teen abortion rate is nearly eight times higher than the rate in Germany, nearly seven times higher than that in the Netherlands, and nearly three times higher than the rate in France.
Countries that have started to make these “no porn for kids”, and severe punishments for underage alcohol abuse have seen their rates go up. For example UK is one of the highest in Europe – but it’s still not as bad as the US. There are 13% more teenages in the US that are having sex under the age of 18 then UK.
The bottom line is. Get over it. The more of a big deal you make, the worse the problem actually is. It’s just like when you have a baby and he/she falls down. If they see you reacting “oh my god, are you ok…”, and worried they will start crying, but if you just pick them up and don’t sound worried they will go on playing.
Change your attitude people!
Parents taking responsibility is not the question of course they should and they might be able to laugh it off as Misty states, however no amount of responsibility or laughing is going to shake off my daughter searching for “hotdog” and getting the image of “Misty sucking my big hot dog”. A good optional search filter that limits certain categories would, however.
Of course people could get around it and it wouldn’t be perfect, but I should have the option.
Google or Yahoo doesn’t need to know if it’s an adult if it’s a selectable option. Adults or children should be able to select areas (i.e. categories) they want searched or not searched. To restate my above post, if I want medical info on “breast” I shouldn’t get porn sites or If want porn sites I shouldn’t get medical sites. In the end the winning search engine will help me focus my search and remove content I don’t want.
Parents
The only people that are at fault and should be in any fashion of trouble are the PARENTS!
Quit having kids and not taking part in their lives or raising them. Start being involved instead of plopping them in front of the TV, when I was a kid, or the computer, now if you are a kid.
If you have the gumption to have a child. Do us all a favor and take care of the little child. Don’t dump it in front of a piece of technology and decide that no one can have access to, or condem makers of entertainment for your own child’s issues that were exacerbated by the parents lack of parenting.
The US is absolutely insane in this respect. Laws are re-written and bad feelings are given to supposed distasteful media makers when it is found a child watched or saw a naked person on television or the Internet. But NO ONE has the common sense to note or ask “WHERE WERE THE PARENTS?” or “WHY DIDN’T THE PARENTS ADVISE OR TEACH THEIR CHILDREN NOT TO GO TO CERTAIN PLACES?”
No it is easier to shift the blame elsewhere.
If you have a kid fess up to your responsibility for raising the child, instead of making society raise your child for you then complaining.
*Sigh* If you leave a playboy magazine in the bathroom and you walk in on little Johnny reading it who is to blame? Playboy for making the magazine? The store for selling it? Or your dumb ass for leaving it out where he can find it?!?
PEOPLE, TAKE RESPONSABILIRT FOR YOUR OWN KIDS!
Google and Yahoo are providing the content. They aren’t creating it but they are providing to the user. That is their business. If it’s legal Google and Yahoo should make it easy for me to find (or not find content) as “I” see fit.
That’s the only issue and that is what the porn exec was saying. He is selling legal sex (as is Coke, Miller and every other business) and if Google and Yahoo would help, parents (or anyone for that matter) could filter out what they don’t want to see.
Re: Re:
Google and Yahoo are providing the content.
I think they are rather providing information about the content. “This site matches your search terms in this context, and it’s located here.”
Here’s a thought. Why don’t the search engines require everybody that uses them to register an account, which would require age verification features to allow access to certain kinds of content in search results? That’s about as ridiculous as any other filtering method out there.
The problem is not the technology, the problem is with adult responsibility, or lack thereof. If anybody here is to blame, it is the parents, and possibly the school teachers or other adults responsible for the children’s well-being. The more technology rules our lives, the more we want to blame it or the people behind it for all our problems.
Never made sense to me....
Its ok for kids to watch the news and see violence all over the place and its fine, but if they see the human body in its natural, beautiful form its a horrible, disgusting thing that should be censored. Kinda strange how the world works isn’t it?
“You never know” that is about the dumbest comparison I’ve ever heard. A better one would be if you asked the store clerk for a magazine on “play toys” and they brought you “playboy” magazine with the foldout opened. That is what Google and Yahoo do, they bring results that remotely match your search. How does a parent take responsibility for a search engine results? Do you tell the child never to search for anything or do you pre-search every word and look at every result?
IT Guy – No one is saying that News and Violence is ok and the Human Body isn’t. That’s why we let people make and view porn or violence. It’s an individual choice. The point is that Search Engines don’t give anyone a choice, they bunch everything together.
If you do much with I.T. I’m sure you have seen WebSense or some other type of content filter. Why shouldn’t a good search engine give me the same ability as a home users?
I should be able to view results just from porn sites if I wanted.
I think they are rather providing information about the content. “This site matches your search terms in this context, and it’s located here.”
pro?vide
verb (used with object) 1. to make available;
They certainly make content available, but it really doesn’t matter, that’s not the point.
I have three children...
…and my husband and I moniter thier Internet usage very closely, just as we moniter their next-to-none TV use, and thier radio listening.
I do not think that they should outlaw steak because a baby can’t eat it. I like steak.
And I like the Internet, television, and radio equivalents to steak.
Just sayin’ that it’s MY job to protect my children. Not the FCCs job, or Google’s job, or anyone else’s except MINE.
Also...
I keep hearing about ICANN throwing out the .xxx and//or .prn extensions that would be exclusively for the porn industry. How hard would it be to simply block off soem extensions, if you are that offended by pornogrophy?
People whom are offended by it should not attempt to curtail the freedom of others. They should lobby for things like the extensions mentioned above, to make it easier to filter your own Internet experience, without bothering anyone else.
one of the funniest histoires of today ….
there is nothing wrong with porn why do we all forget when we were kids all the boys including me at 10 years old look into garbage cans for old playboy mags or my friends would steal thir fathers porno mags and we would all look at it
Will filters really help?
The porn industry is paying big bucks to find NEW customers. I believe that adding a filter will only make the porn creators find a way around it.
i agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)
iam sadness it very hard live about pron why use internet inisde webmaster thing wrong some person had use their how find out world seeking if daily again see pron it easy way for cost that live a not good life so would found google or yahoo not get delete webmaster out throw it .