Kids hit by porn wave

Internet searches link to sex

Sunday Herald Sun, July 25, 2004

Children are being bombarded with hardcore pornography while innocently searching the Internet. Simple searches on the names of popular music stars, athletes and even some politicians return links to web pages featuring highly explicit sexual images totally unrelated to the name being searched.

A Sunday Herald Sun investigation revealed:

A search for websites featuring pop star Sophie Monk returned links to four pornography pages among it’s top 30 sites, including a Web page graphically depicting several different sexual acts.

A popular search engine provided two pornography sites among the top 20 results for a search on the name of athlete Tatiana Grigorieva.

The name of Victorian Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan returned a link to a site touting “Sophie Allan nude photos” within the first 40 results.

A search for photos of Marlena Jeffery, wife of Australian Governor-General Michael Jeffrey, returned a foreign porn site in the first 10 results.

Parent Gabrielle Walsh said it was upsetting that children were exposed to the sites while trying to find legitimate information.

“If they are searching for anything for an assignment, they are getting this unwanted material,” Mrs Walsh, a Kew mother of seven, said.

“I think there should be some government regulation because it is beyond the user’s control.

The Australian Family Association also called for search engines to be ordered to filter out pornographic sites.

“It is appalling,” spokesman Damien Tudehope said.

“It makes parenting much more difficult.”

Many search engines offer filters, but the Sunday Herald Sun discovered default settings often allowed explicit material through.

Search engine Google offers a SafeSearch option, but a message on the site said no filter was 100 percent accurate.

“There are some really practical things parents can do,” he said.

‘Parents should educate their kids properly on searching and how to use the computer.”

Internet Industry Association chief executive Peter Coroneos said filters went some way to protecting their children, but the onus was on parents to ensure their children used the Internet responsibly.

“All the search engines are trying to be responsible, but their job is to still be a search facility,” Mr Coroneos said.

“Unfortunately that always will bring risks and we have to plan how to manage the risks.”

“The issue here is to have parental supervision and appropriate filters at home.”