Technology has interwoven its way into the heart and soul of our culture - and nowhere can its effects be seen more than in the behavior of our youth and teens.
Social networking sites such as MySpace , Friendster and Facebook have become the new "hangouts" - with many new and unanticipated social consequences.
The issues of children being "picked-up" by pedophiles is well documented - and organized groups such as www.wiredsafety.org are fighting the good fight by educating our children as to the risks and working to put the creeps behind bars where they belong.
But what about the content our children are subjected to when surfing these sites? At present, most social networking sites have only an "honor" based system of identifying and removing such content.
This problem is being noticed by parents, and is effecting the subscribership of such sites - here is a sampling of some of the negative buzz around the web:
· "Thinking these sites were kid-safe websites, I clicked on a picture that leads to a blog. I never expected to see hardcore porn images. There was no censorship what-so-ever," – A concerned parent, from ChristiaNet.org
· “MySpace, Bebo and other social networking sites monitor photographs only after they have been posted and rely on members to report rule-breaking. Jessica Ross, the editor of Computing Which?, said: "Children are spending hours every week on networking sites, building up their profiles and chatting with friends. However, what might seem like innocent fun has a darker, more sinister side.” – The Scotsman
A new UK-based start-up, Image Analyzer LTD has innovated a new product that is sure to be very popular amongst these sites. The Image Analyzer engine can function in the back-end of such social networking sites, and quickly scans and detects (to an 80 % accuracy level) pornographic content. This engine can easily be integrated into any system such that this type content can be flagged and eliminated BEFORE children are exposed to it.
This same system can be easily implemented as an add-on to your virus checker, or email filtering system. Rumor has it that the company is very close to signing a large deal as an add-on to one of the popular virus scanners.................stay tuned for more.
