19 May 2006
Google is allegedly exposing children to obscene online content in South Korea, according to government officials quoted in local media reports.
However, state ethics watchdogs claim that they have been unable to talk to the search firm because it does not have a local representative office, the Korea Times reported.
Leading Korean search portals confirm that users are at least 20 years old before showing search results that contain sex-related keywords. Google's Korean search engine does not, the newspaper reported.
Because the search results page includes summary text taken directly from other websites, it may contain language deemed to be obscene.
Although the age of consent in South Korea is 13, the age at which people legally become adults and are able, for example, to marry without parental approval is 20.
Google has had trouble breaking into the Korean market, which is dominated by local companies.
The search giant's share of click-throughs has been estimated at between 10 and 17 per cent by various sources this year, with rival Yahoo holding about 30 per cent.
"Google is not legally required to check whether internet users are over 19 years old before showing the search results for adult content," Han Meyong-ho, an official at the state-run Information Communication Ethics Committee told the Korea Times.
However, Han said that it would be "proper" for Google to check that users are adults in a similar manner to other popular Korean-language search sites, including Yahoo's Korean portal.
Despite Han's claim that his office had been unable to communicate with Google, the Korea Times said that it had spoken with an "unnamed Google official " in Korea.
According to the newspaper, the official claimed that Google was already filtering out adult-only sites from search results. This appears to be a reference to the company's SafeSearch technology.
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MyRedZee has a solution..
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Internet Rankings News Release: -- Major search engines have opened up an enormous variety of resources for kids and teens of all ages to find almost anything they search for on the Internet. Unfortunately it has also created a new avenue for kids and teens to access pornography through these major engines. According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, every year one out of every five children is sexually solicited online. One of the more common incidents on the Internet involves children searching for explicit topics that send kids to pornographic Web sites. Major search engines allow unfiltered results and that can be a problem, especially if kids are doing the searching. This is raising concern across the nation for schools, parents and even the government. Major search engines could install filters that would stop users from typing explicit topics. Unfortunately, pornography is one of the most searched for items and this would impact their user base and their bottom line. The Bush Administration is trying to pass an Internet child protection law to stop pornographic Web sites from showing up on computers that children are using. In the process, they recently requested records from Google to see what people search for. Although Google refused to release the information, the goal was to see how often a search resulted in a pornographic link. That protection law was struck down just two years ago, leaving parents; schools and teens to find ways to get good clean search results. MyRedZee (A registrar for RedZee.com) shows the beginning of a possible solution to this problem. RedZee, a newer search engine, filters out pornographic results while delivering accurate and relevant searches. "RedZee is filling the desperate need for a quality search engine that offers clean and accurate results without putting the pressure on the End user to ?police? their results. Didn?t the cable boxes in our homes teach us that? ?Quotes Douglas Stewart of MyRedZee. Searches for explicit or pornographic-related words do not deliver a result. With the peace of mind this company is offering they have quickly become popular with parents, teens and schools across the country. "We take pride in knowing that people count on us to help in the struggle to clean up Internet searching as we know it," says Stewart. The government may never be completely successful at passing any laws to keep pornographic search results away from children. In the meantime, RedZee's quality record sets them apart and continues to push their search engine to success. That's why their mission "to be the most accurate and the most reliable for adults, while at the same time thinking of the children and what they shouldn?t be exposed too.?-- MyRedZee.com
Posted by: Douglas Stewart 19 May 2006