Fox News has come forward with criticisms of Microsoft's recently unveiled search engine Bing, claiming that it provides "a cornucopia of pornography" and that it is easy to transform "the search engine into [your] very own pornographic Web site."Particularly troubling for Fox News is Bing's autoplay feature, which allows visitors to preview "explicit pornographic" (and other) videos without having to leave the search engine. Indeed, Fox News warns that this feature may have unforeseen consequences of a less than desirable nature, writing that it "may become a liability, because users can get a taste of porn videos on Bing instead of having to go to a smutty Web site--an innovation other search engines have yet to offer."
Fox News was alerted to this shocking state of affairs by blogger Loïc Le Meur, whose review of Bing's search capabilities includes the following caution: "[n]ow try sex in bing, deactivate safe search and go to video. You are now on a porn site without leaving bing. Amazing. No I won't link or publish a screenshot, you have to try for yourselves!"
Never mind that Bing allows users to set the search filter according to their individual preferences ("strict, moderate or simply off"), unnamed online safety advocates point out to Fox News that this is simply not doing enough to stop children getting easy access to porn "because the filters can be circumvented easily with just one click."
At the end of the day, unnamed Internet safety experts, according to Fox News, are deeply concerned about Microsoft's new search engine and warn that "[y]our kids may get a bang out of Bing--and that's not a good thing".
but this would actually make it useful
So if i turn off the "SafeSearch" and search for sex and find porn its bings problem??
A Fox employee's thoughts: "Hmm, I could think of ways to make Obama look bad or I could go to Bing and type in 'sex'..."
A Fox employee's thoughts: "Hmm, I could think of ways to make Obama look bad or I could go to Bing and type in 'sex'..."
I don't think it takes much work to make Obama look bad.
A Fox employee's thoughts: "Hmm, I could think of ways to make Obama look bad or I could go to Bing and type in 'sex'..."
I don't think it takes much work to make Obama look bad.
Zing.
True, who else wants to Tea bag? o_O (and if they cry foul about dirtying that word, hey they didn't understand a fist bump) Don't most search engine's if you turn the safe search thingy off end up with porn? Which decade is Fox News living in?
What I found surprising was that I signed out, turned off the safe filter, a prompt came up stating age verification is required and I was signed in again automatically with my Windows Live ID - and no I don't save my password.
What I found surprising was that I signed out, turned off the safe filter, a prompt came up stating age verification is required and I was signed in again automatically with my Windows Live ID - and no I don't save my password.
and you think Google doesn't link to porn?
Amusingly, it actually pretty much says, "Hey uh, you'll wanna turn off safesearch to find that.. Just click here!"
You misunderstand. Google doesn't show the porn on its own servers, while Bing.com does exactly this (at least in many cases, after checking this out -- some providers don't seem to provide this feature). So while Google can find porn videos, it doesn't play them. Blocking Bing is the only way to currently resolve this "problem" if you were the kind that use to do that for the workplace.
Bing is on a different level than Google when it comes to videos, including adult videos, for better or worse, depending on your POV and location.
Although Google doesn't yet offer the video playback feature of Bing, but if I turn off the safe search in Google I can turn Google's image search into its own porn search engine.
Both are just as simple to turn off...
Looks like Google paid someone to start a smear campaign...
You actually don't need to turn off the search filter in Google. There's an explicit image (mainly of breasts) hiding in every image search query on Google.
Maybe not on the first page, but it's out there.
It does that if your query returns nothing but would with SafeSearch off. It's just a helpful feature, letting you know how you could get some results if you're searching for an adult word. I don't see a problem with this because if somebody searches 'porn' and this message comes up, it's obvious they know what they're looking for and they'd find it somehow anyway.
You're talking as though Bing is bad in this sense, but at least it warns the person they must be over 18 years of age to turn SafeSearch off, like most porn sites warn you. Google doesn't warn you at all. It just lets you.
Here's food for thought as well - When I was 13 years old, one of my friends showed me something explicit on his computer and turned SafeSearch off to show me. He was 13 at the time. That was Google. So how is it only Bing which is the problem?
Although Google doesn't yet offer the video playback feature of Bing, but if I turn off the safe search in Google I can turn Google's image search into its own porn search engine.
Both are just as simple to turn off...
Looks like Google paid someone to start a smear campaign...
It may be something to care about for the sites who serve those videos ? How will they be able to send the user from one page to another to eternally find those free porn videos ..
+ 1 ;-)
As well, I have Windows Live IDs for my kids, which are set up as child accounts and are administered by me. I'm going to guess that if my kids try to log in to Bing using these IDs they will not be given the option to turn off filtering.
Remember, Fox News is conservative-leaning. The very fact that Fox News (unlike MSNBC) pointed this out should surprise nobody (not because of Microsoft's equity position in MSNBC, but because of the political position MSNBC's management has taken). Lastly (in the same article) both of FNC's senior legal analysts (Judge Napolitano and Megyn Kelly) stated that the ONLY way to enable this *feature* is to deliberately evade or end-run the in-place parental controls, and if the kids are doing that, then what does that say about the parents?
In other words, Bing is doing the right thing (legally speaking).
Children should not have unmonitored, unrestricted access anway.
Porn doesn't cause wars or hatred.
+1!
More porn, less church, please.
You dont need religion for wars or hatred. As long as people want something that others have there will be fighting.
nnnno..... yes!!
Sensationalist media FTL
So? why is that bad?
As I've also stated, Google also doesn't warn you that you should be over 18 when turning of SafeSearch. Bing does.
Bing only says "This contains adult material, turn off SafeSearch here" when somebody searches for an adult term like 'porn' and there are no results. What's wrong with that? If somebody is searching for that term, it's pretty obvious they know what they want and will get it one way or another.
Microsoft have just provided a helpful feature, one which Google doesn't, helping the user find what they want.
HA HA....good stuff
LOL nice
Makes you also wonder what they could be up to next..
Just a thought of course..
Thanks,
1. There is a kid, who heard that strange word "sex" and don't know what it means
2. He/she fires up his/her dads/moms computer and opens ie and goes to bing.com
3. He/she tries to search for the word on bing but can't find anything related
4. He/she is clever and smart enough to bypass the adult filter
Now here is the hole in their logic. A kid , who can disable the filter is smart enough to know what sex is nowadays... and he/she is looking for exact pictures and videos : /
Have you actually TRIED this? Bing practically walks you through turning off the filter!
Last edited by roadwarrior on 03 Jun 2009 - 14:54
Doesn't Google as well? In fact, Google don't even warn you that you have to be 18 to turn it off. Bing do.
I tried it and tried it on Google too. It is easy. But comparing the results gave me a more shocking experience. For "sex" it gave me shemale and gay porn photos on the first page on google image search :'(
Well, that is still what sex is.
Exactly. It has to cater for everybody if you don't specify a 'type' of sex
For example, even categories of porn and specific porn stars are easily findable.
can you source that with a nonpartisan link?
As long as the correct safety procedures are in order to protect people who are not allowed to see it and as far as I am aware, they are - a notice informing you have to be 18 to turn off SafeSearch. That's more than Google gives you when you turn off SafeSearch and they show the same amount of pornography when people search for it.
Fox News really must have a problem with Bing and/or Microsoft and it's blatantly shown with that article. They should be ashamed of themselves for not mentioning that Google (and maybe others) allow this too!
As in, "I gotta go Bing that right away!"
Fox News: Bing is free porn portal
Newsflash for Fox: So is every other search engine! Horrors!
Duh ... Stopping children from surfing smut is the parents job via monitoring or parental control software on computers they own. Its not the responsibility of search providers.
??
Seemed like a fairly clear statement to me.
Noticed that with noscript
So I guess all they have to do is turn off preview of video when hovering to satisfy corporate world?
To get results, change your search terms."
I undertsand their concern, but at the same time I do not. It is important to prevent accidental porn for young kids, but once they reach a certain age if they want to find porn they can.
Yes, you can preview videos that may be unsuitable for minors. Children can also search for videos of puppy dogs and preview them too. Which your child decides to do, it almost certainly nothing to do with Microsoft I'm afraid.
Video of violence? Fine! Videos of natural activities? Ewww!
Does bing enable you to force safe search similar to that of google?
It is impossible for users at work to turn off safe searching on google, If the same is true for bing, then I dont see a problem.
Good stuff! pr0n FTW!
Someone needs to remind the people at Fox News that the internet is meant to be used by everyone, adults included. It's is not built for children and it will never be particularly child friendly, just like most of the world, in fact. Are they going to go around and demand that all kinds of things are changed and made safer so parents can get away with neglecting children even more? Where do we start.. banning alcohol, banning cars. Factories are not child friendly, we should close them. Gyms are not child friendly, close them. And pubs and bars. And big ass rollercoasters.
Swimming pools require supervision, close them down. Children can't really be allowed to mess with anything electronic, like wiring a plug, so we ought not to allow anyone and just ban electricity. Same goes for cooking food .. ban all ovens and kettles.. I could go on all day...
Responsible parents will have this covered and won't use the computer as childcare. The tools are out there for anyone that needs to restrict content, there is no need for search engines to weigh in on it and compromise our actual freedom of speech.
Someone needs to remind the people at Fox News that the internet is meant to be used by everyone, adults included. It's is not built for children and it will never be particularly child friendly, just like most of the world, in fact. Are they going to go around and demand that all kinds of things are changed and made safer so parents can get away with neglecting children even more? Where do we start.. banning alcohol, banning cars. Factories are not child friendly, we should close them. Gyms are not child friendly, close them. And pubs and bars. And big ass rollercoasters.
Swimming pools require supervision, close them down. Children can't really be allowed to mess with anything electronic, like wiring a plug, so we ought not to allow anyone and just ban electricity. Same goes for cooking food .. ban all ovens and kettles.. I could go on all day...
Responsible parents will have this covered and won't use the computer as childcare. The tools are out there for anyone that needs to restrict content, there is no need for search engines to weigh in on it and compromise our actual freedom of speech.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks for a well written comment. We need more like this.
Very much agreed!
Maybe it's better than google for that, who knows? I am off to try it
Oh, noes!! You mean, it finds what you told it to look for?
A search engine is just a tool. Last time I checked, without the person at the keyboard, search engines don't do much on their own...
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.