ZeroHour Posted January 23, 2009 Posted January 23, 2009 Hi Currently we block most image search sites as kids have repeatedly abused them and got past the filters. We tell pupils/staff to use picsearch.com which appears to be much more moderated but I was just wondering how good googles safe search is now for filtering nasty images? We use smoothwall so its enabled (safe-search) for everyone and we are debating letting them use it. Is safe-search good and if its easily beaten what terms did you use?
tom_newton Posted January 23, 2009 Posted January 23, 2009 Zero: remember your lovely SmoothWall will block thumbnails which are sourced from blocked sites if you turn on "deep url analysis" (not on by default I am afraid) in "per group settings".
pete Posted January 23, 2009 Posted January 23, 2009 (edited) Ultimately, safe search will display porn if someone is actively looking for it because images are generally stored as a $number_string.jpg. As a means of preventing accidental porn exposure, it's pretty good. edit: @ Tom Do you have a rough guesstimate of increased load from turning that on? I know that's a "piece of string" question, but half as much again, double, more? Edited January 23, 2009 by pete
OutToLunch Posted January 23, 2009 Posted January 23, 2009 That sounds like a really handy option. We do have some filtering in place here but the kids are always finding new safe phrases that end up with naughty links. This weeks phrase of the week is 'big jugs' - don't want to break anyone's cookery lessons or pottery classes so that's a tricky one to sort out. I do filter on the phrase "Safesearch is off" though.
tom_newton Posted January 23, 2009 Posted January 23, 2009 Ultimately, safe search will display porn if someone is actively looking for it because images are generally stored as a $number_string.jpg. As a means of preventing accidental porn exposure, it's pretty good. edit: @ Tom Do you have a rough guesstimate of increased load from turning that on? I know that's a "piece of string" question, but half as much again, double, more? I asked Phil (lead Guardian developer): [13:42] how much overhead does deep-url searching tack on? [13:42] a) a fair bit [13:43] b) not much [13:43] c) all [13:49] deep URL searching would be a B Not as much as the content filter, more than straight url filtering. You'll be fine
Silvor Posted January 23, 2009 Posted January 23, 2009 50/50 - works pretty well but depends how the students phrase things...we've had a few issues!
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