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Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Limpag: Porn in Globe blogs
By Max Limpag
Celltalk
BOUND TO HAPPEN. In any system that accepts user contributions, be it photos, text or video clips, you are bound to get inappropriate content. Some people just love to post nude images even in general-audience websites.
A few months back, I wrote about how pornographic images made its way into Smart Addict Mobile’s blog portal. The portal is publicly accessible and is linked to from the telecom giant’s home page.
Smart acted swiftly and took the site down. It was later reinstated and, in the time that I surfed the blogs hosted there, no longer contained images you wouldn’t want your seven-year-old kid to see.
In my blog post on the issue, a reader alerted me that images were even worse in Globe’s mobile blogs.
NO GUARDIAN ANGEL. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no Dr. Rene Joseph Bullecer. I do not believe in imposing prudish “moral” conventions on what people can read or watch in the privacy of their homes. I surf websites that would drive Bullecer into apoplexy.
But public websites are another thing. Websites, such as the Globe blogs portal, can be opened by anyone, even by minors.
I was able to check Globe mobile blogs just recently because in several times that I accessed it before, I always get a maintenance error, indicating that the server could not process the request because of the load.
When I went blog-hopping in GBlogs last week, I was shocked. The images were indeed worse than those I spotted in Smart’s blog portal.
The images were not just nude photographs, several were of heterosexual and homosexual couples having sex. These photos clearly violate the terms of GBlogs’ services, part of which says:
“You will not post (1) images containing nudity, including but not limited to unclothed children regardless of age; and (2) images containing vulgar, pornographic, sexual or obscene material, or messages which contain pornographic, vulgar, sexual or obscene material or which contain language or meaning highly suggestive of any of the foregoing.”
Many photo storage and sharing sites have buttons that readers can use to flag the image as “may be offensive.” When the image is flagged, it is then checked by a staff member, who decides whether to delete or keep it.
Filtering photographs is such a daunting task but it is something that Globe will have to do because the GBlogs portal is a public website.
After all, Globe did say in the terms and conditions that: “Images and comments that G-Blogs in its sole discretion believes may have been uploaded in violation of these Terms and Conditions shall be removed from the website.” The company did not say “may be removed,” they said these “shall be removed.”
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 16, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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