WARNING: BE CAREFUL when looking at Images for School!

[TranquilMind]

Oh my goodness.  My son and I were looking up images for Beowulf for a Board Game assignment he is doing.  We thought we'd look at some of the sketches that others have done,whether maps of the area, or individual characters.

 

About half of them were extremely graphic *p o r n* photos.  I mean EXTREMELY graphic, where I about jumped out of my chair!  I am set up to catch that stuff, at least I thought I was.  So these scumbags are slipping it into subjects that children and teens are likely to be looking up for various school assignments.

Word to the wise.  Pay attention before your kid goes searching for images of classic literature! 

[Tammi K]

That's weird. I wonder if it is your search engine. I just used Google and image searched the word Beowulf. I looked at the first 450 images that came up and not a single naked body save a few bare male chests.  In all those images I didn't even see a single 'bOOk' showing.

[happi duck]

That's terrible!

[Liz CA]

Oh my goodness.  My son and I were looking up images for Beowulf for a Board Game assignment he is doing.  We thought we'd look at some of the sketches that others have done,whether maps of the area, or individual characters.

 

About half of them were extremely graphic *p o r n* photos.  I mean EXTREMELY graphic, where I about jumped out of my chair!  I am set up to catch that stuff, at least I thought I was.  So these scumbags are slipping it into subjects that children and teens are likely to be looking up for various school assignments.

 

Word to the wise.  Pay attention before your kid goes searching for images of classic literature! 

 

Yes, in virtually any subject category, you can find pics that are NOT related to the subject.

[Ravin]

I have Safesearch turned on in Google for DD. This makes for fewer pictures of dubious appropriateness and pretty well screens out the "meant for adult eyes only" stuff.

[Tanaqui]

Rule 39 strikes again. (But seriously... in Beowulf?)

[StephanieZ]

I hate to suggest this . . . but IME, if your search engines start turning up XXX photos . . . IME, the root cause is that someone is using that computer (or certainly at least a networked computer) . . . to view and search those images. Google is "smart" and adapts to your searching and selecting . . . I suggest checking into using OpenDNS as your server (and locking down admin access) . . . and/or other nanny-ware . . . or, if you don't want to restrict or track your older boys (and/or spouse's) internet usage, then set up a separate computer for you and your younger kids to use. Teen boy hormones are rough stuff! (Once I locked down our internet, the search results cleaned up quite quickly. Thank goodness.)

[Liz CA]

I hate to suggest this . . . but IME, if your search engines start turning up XXX photos . . . IME, the root cause is that someone is using that computer (or certainly at least a networked computer) . . . to view and search those images. Google is "smart" and adapts to your searching and selecting . . . I suggest checking into using OpenDNS as your server (and locking down admin access) . . . and/or other nanny-ware . . . or, if you don't want to restrict or track your older boys (and/or spouse's) internet usage, then set up a separate computer for you and your younger kids to use. Teen boy hormones are rough stuff! (Once I locked down our internet, the search results cleaned up quite quickly. Thank goodness.)

 

Well, that would mean my work computer is being used by someone else...and it's an all women office too...oy.

[jenn-]

I hate to admit it, but I did most of my DD's preresearch for her last year.  I would find safe sites with topics that related to her assignments and let her search there for the info.  No way I was turning her loose with some of the vague terminology her teachers were using.

[Renthead Mommy]

And always watch your search terms! 

 

In 4th grade my son wanted to go as Teddy Roosevelt in his Rough Rider uniform for Halloween.  So I googled it to get an idea of what I needed to make.  Needless to say, it is very important to add the words "TEDDY ROOSEVELT" to that search.  You don't want to just google "rough riders"!

 

Search terms are very important...

[Jean in Newcastle]

Make sure you search for Beautiful Feet books.  Do not put in just beautiful feet.  Who knew there were so many with foot fetishes? :scared:

[EndOfOrdinary]

Learning how to do a google search will really help. Using quotation marks means an exact search. Adding a + sign in front of a word means and. A minus means not. These sorts of things greatly reduce unwanted material. They also require critical thinking from your student to personally refine what they are looking for.

 

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/how-to-use-google-pro-tips-tricks/

[Jenny in Florida]

That's weird. I wonder if it is your search engine. I just used Google and image searched the word Beowulf. I looked at the first 450 images that came up and not a single naked body save a few bare male chests.  In all those images I didn't even see a single 'bOOk' showing.

 

Well, I, too, couldn't resist and did a search. While I would not classify anything I turned up as "p * o * r * n," there were most certainly bOOks, mostly those belonging to Angelina Jolie. 

[KidsHappen]

No porn here either. Not even bare booKs.A lot of pictures of AJ that might as well be bare. She was wearing some painted on stocking thing with gold scroll covering the naughty bits. 

 

I agree with pp who said your results were based on previous searches on that computer. 

[IdahoHomeschooler]

"Beowulf sketches" yields some interesting results. And by interesting, I mean manja(?) pr0n. Who knew? Gotta love the hive, because now I will associate Beowulf with freaky, illustrated pr0n, lol.

[ElizabethB]

I use safe search. It is usually very good and we do not have problems.

 

But, a few months ago, I was looking for instructions for a homemade heating pad and had to pull the iPad away from the children and figure out how to make a heating pad on my own. I would not search for "rice sock," evidently there are some uses for them that are not rated G.

 

The whole rice sock thing was a failure on many levels, they attracted mice and spread rice everywhere in the children's rooms. I had to buy mousetraps and vacuum rice piles and sort rice out of lego bins. I now have water bottles and microwaveable heating pads made from synthetic materials.

 

I am also allergic to most chemicals and we have rats as pets, so we went with no kill mouse traps and my husband had to relocate a very noisy mouse at 3:00 A.M. (I am a sound sleeper and slept through it all. My daughter said it was a very cute mouse and she was glad we just relocated it, she woke up and got to accompany the mouse on its relocation trip. My son was sad not to be woken up for the exciting adventure. I was happy to sleep through the excitement, LOL.)

[StephanieZ]

Well, that would mean my work computer is being used by someone else...and it's an all women office too...oy.

 

Well, if it is a shared computer with unfettered internet access, that would be my guess. . . Perhaps you should stock up on Clorox wipes . . .

[katilac]

 .  You don't want to just google "rough riders"!

 

 

 

Well, seriously, you're a fangirl, you should have seen that one coming!  :lol:  :lol:

 

Most libraries have student search engines. I find they are better than nanny filters (smarter, if you will). 

 

I searched Beowulf and Beowulf sketches on my standard search engine and got quite boring results. 

[NCMom]

That's weird. I wonder if it is your search engine. I just used Google and image searched the word Beowulf. I looked at the first 450 images that came up and not a single naked body save a few bare male chests.  In all those images I didn't even see a single 'bOOk' showing.

 

Same here. Check your search settings maybe?

 

Georgia

[mommaduck]

Rule 39 strikes again. (But seriously... in Beowulf?)

 

Yes, because recent renderings (movies and such) have focused in on the sexual portions of the story.

[HRAAB]

I've never had porn show up in any search, but then my definition of porn might be different.  Nudity usually doesn't fall under the term porn for me.  It would depend.

[TranquilMind]

Yes, in virtually any subject category, you can find pics that are NOT related to the subject.

I had NO idea!  I've looked at images before, say of prom dresses in my era or something, and never saw anything inappropriate.

 

My eyes were opened, figuratively and literally, that's for darn sure. 

 

My son told me to never click on an unknown link to an image.  If I like the image, just cut and paste it for a project (with attribution, of course).   

Scumbags.  They know that primarily teens (and maybe teachers or profs) would be looking at Beowulf.  

[TranquilMind]

I've never had porn show up in any search, but then my definition of porn might be different.  Nudity usually doesn't fall under the term porn for me.  It would depend.

I doubt your definition is any different from what I saw.  Nude women, sprawled open with erect,  um, members prepared for entry at various locations, and actual gifs depicting said acts, I think.  It was only a few seconds but there was movement also.  ....I've said enough now.  :O

[TranquilMind]

Same here. Check your search settings maybe?

 

Georgia

Really?  I think Bing was used in this case.  I wonder if that matters.  Will check the settings.

[TranquilMind]

No porn here either. Not even bare booKs.A lot of pictures of AJ that might as well be bare. She was wearing some painted on stocking thing with gold scroll covering the naughty bits. 

 

I agree with pp who said your results were based on previous searches on that computer. 

Nooo.. It was MY computer.  No one else uses it, except for the rare search for something school related, since I have the printers here.    I can affirm authoritatively that no searches of that kind have been made here on my computer! 

[TranquilMind]

Learning how to do a google search will really help. Using quotation marks means an exact search. Adding a + sign in front of a word means and. A minus means not. These sorts of things greatly reduce unwanted material. They also require critical thinking from your student to personally refine what they are looking for.

 

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/how-to-use-google-pro-tips-tricks/

Thanks...I'm going to take a look at that. 

[TranquilMind]

I hate to suggest this . . . but IME, if your search engines start turning up XXX photos . . . IME, the root cause is that someone is using that computer (or certainly at least a networked computer) . . . to view and search those images. Google is "smart" and adapts to your searching and selecting . . . I suggest checking into using OpenDNS as your server (and locking down admin access) . . . and/or other nanny-ware . . . or, if you don't want to restrict or track your older boys (and/or spouse's) internet usage, then set up a separate computer for you and your younger kids to use. Teen boy hormones are rough stuff! (Once I locked down our internet, the search results cleaned up quite quickly. Thank goodness.)

 

 

My kids are slammed down tight on their own with parent passwords (and on gadgets).  But I didn't activate my own safe search, because well, only I look at my computer and I'm not looking that stuff up!    I wonder if that is it??  Will check into Open DNS and networking.    We aren't linked but I have password-protected the computers and ipods, etc.    

[Amber in SJ]

I have had inappropriate things show up in my searches.  Waaaay back at the beginning of the internet (I believe I had AOL, or maybe Prodigy) I was hosting a New Year's Eve party.  In my naivete I searched "party games" when that turned up things like musical chairs, I searched "adult party games."  Bad, very bad.  Now I know better.  However I do occasionally run across things I would rater not see.  Last year when working on History I made the mistake of searching "Netherland dikes" for images to put on a notebook page.  I believe google just assumed I can't spell.

 

I am always disappointed when I can't let my kids use the library computers.  My dd went to search for something disney and the similar recent searches turned up "disney p0rn"  "disney princess p0rn"  "disney cartoon p0rn" 

 

gross.

 

Amber in SJ

[KatherineNaomi]

I highly recommend OpenDNS Family Shield. It's easy, free and we set it up through our router so all wifi connected devices are covered.

 

https://store.opendns.com/setup/#/familyshield

[Renthead Mommy]

Well, seriously, you're a fangirl, you should have seen that one coming!  :lol:  :lol:

 

 

 

LOL! Very true!  This Mom thing throws me off somedays! LOL! 

[StephanieZ]

My kids are slammed down tight on their own with parent passwords (and on gadgets).  But I didn't activate my own safe search, because well, only I look at my computer and I'm not looking that stuff up!    I wonder if that is it??  Will check into Open DNS and networking.    We aren't linked but I have password-protected the computers and ipods, etc.    

 

FWIW, everytime I think I have the internet locked down tight, my teen son figures out how to evade what I've done. Usually in a matter of minutes. Urgh. I think I have it down pretty good right now, but I hazard to guess that my son just grew out of his phase of pure determination . . . and/or me entirely taking away gadgets for extended periods of time actually was punitive enough to deter him. Never assume you have it locked down. Try googling "how to evade OpenDNS" -- which my son did when I first put it in place . . . and in 5 min he was surfing the web unfettered . . . which is why I have since locked down access to any admin accounts on any devices . . . LOL, it is an arms race. ;)

[HRAAB]

I doubt your definition is any different from what I saw.  Nude women, sprawled open with erect,  um, members prepared for entry at various locations, and actual gifs depicting said acts, I think.  It was only a few seconds but there was movement also.  ....I've said enough now.  :o

 

:ohmy: I googled Beowulf images, and I didn't get anything like that.  Thankfully.  Yeah.  I don't need anymore information.

[Ravin]

FWIW, everytime I think I have the internet locked down tight, my teen son figures out how to evade what I've done. Usually in a matter of minutes. Urgh. I think I have it down pretty good right now, but I hazard to guess that my son just grew out of his phase of pure determination . . . and/or me entirely taking away gadgets for extended periods of time actually was punitive enough to deter him. Never assume you have it locked down. Try googling "how to evade OpenDNS" -- which my son did when I first put it in place . . . and in 5 min he was surfing the web unfettered . . . which is why I have since locked down access to any admin accounts on any devices . . . LOL, it is an arms race. ;)

Off topic a bit, but if I had a kid engaging in arms race tactics like this, they would be seriously curtailed from unsupervised access to the internet.

 

I'm pretty liberal on what I consider age appropriate, but legally imposed boundaries need to be respected if nothing else.

 

I guess I'm fortunate that my oldest has much preferred boundaries that spare her from feeling like she needs eye bleach.

[TranquilMind]

And always watch your search terms! 

 

In 4th grade my son wanted to go as Teddy Roosevelt in his Rough Rider uniform for Halloween.  So I googled it to get an idea of what I needed to make.  Needless to say, it is very important to add the words "TEDDY ROOSEVELT" to that search.  You don't want to just google "rough riders"!

 

Search terms are very important...

Ahh, I could totally make that mistake. 

[TranquilMind]

I highly recommend OpenDNS Family Shield. It's easy, free and we set it up through our router so all wifi connected devices are covered.

 

https://store.opendns.com/setup/#/familyshield

Thanks, working on this tonight, when the husband gets home. 

[TranquilMind]

I have had inappropriate things show up in my searches.  Waaaay back at the beginning of the internet (I believe I had AOL, or maybe Prodigy) I was hosting a New Year's Eve party.  In my naivete I searched "party games" when that turned up things like musical chairs, I searched "adult party games."  Bad, very bad.  Now I know better.  However I do occasionally run across things I would rater not see.  Last year when working on History I made the mistake of searching "Netherland dikes" for images to put on a notebook page.  I believe google just assumed I can't spell.

 

I am always disappointed when I can't let my kids use the library computers.  My dd went to search for something disney and the similar recent searches turned up "disney p0rn"  "disney princess p0rn"  "disney cartoon p0rn" 

 

gross.

 

Amber in SJ

That's prettty disgusting, to co-op Disney images for that.  Yuck. 

[Katy]

It could be that someone else in your office building has been searching for porn, it could be the internet server shares the same IP address with everyone in the office/

[Arcadia]

FWIW, everytime I think I have the internet locked down tight, my teen son figures out how to evade what I've done. Usually in a matter of minutes. Urgh. I think I have it down pretty good right now, but I hazard to guess that my son just grew out of his phase of pure determination . . .

 

The free Wi-Fi at Starbucks, McDonalds, Barnes & Noble and at the libraries have no/little filters.  The kids just need their own library cards to get to use an internet linked PC at the library, most play minecraft but some surf the internet.  I know one of the libraries had problem with people surfing porn in the library at the PC terminals where kids might walk by.

[Tammyla]

Thanks for the heads up; that's disgusting.  I'm glad you caught it in time.

[StephanieZ]

I highly recommend OpenDNS Family Shield. It's easy, free and we set it up through our router so all wifi connected devices are covered.

 

https://store.opendns.com/setup/#/familyshield

 

This is what we use, too. It has been awesome. Just be sure to lockdown access to any admin accounts on your computers once you do this to prevent someone from very quickly and easily undo-ing what you do! 

[mrsrevmeg]

We had something similar happen. Not porn, but nudity, which I really didn't want to see with my son right there as we were searching Byzantine triptychs.

[poppy]

Once I was searched Girl Scout Uniforms and on clicked "show more results" a couple times (looking for an old uniform style) and ay yi yi. 
 

 

[KarenNC]

I doubt your definition is any different from what I saw.  Nude women, sprawled open with erect,  um, members prepared for entry at various locations, and actual gifs depicting said acts, I think.  It was only a few seconds but there was movement also.  ....I've said enough now.  :o

 

Wow, would have thrown me as well. I tried both "Beowulf" and "Beowulf sketches" image searches on Google and Bing (not using quotations) and got nothing at all like that, just Angelina Jolie in the body suit or, in the sketches, some suggestive outfits. No special filters on my computer. I think you should be able to check your browser history to make sure nothing odd happened without your knowledge, and I'd start by clearing search history and all cookies (irritating as that is).

[Trish]

I highly recommend OpenDNS Family Shield. It's easy, free and we set it up through our router so all wifi connected devices are covered.

 

https://store.opendns.com/setup/#/familyshield

 

If you use this, does it still allow things like Youtube and open image searches? The kids use both for some types of school projects. It would be nice if it kept out the bad stuff while still allowing access to things they often use.

[mommymilkies]

I had that happen once when googling Scooby Doo pictures. Totally freaky. Only happened that once. I know my computer wasn't used for anything like that. Make sure you're logged in with safe search on!!! I've taken to having the kids use Pinterest more for searches because they have stricter controls.

[EKS]

Apparently there is a video game rated 18+ called Beowulf.  When I googled Beowulf, some images that I think were from the game came up, but they were only of a scantily clad woman--no actual p@rn.

[Liz CA]

I highly recommend OpenDNS Family Shield. It's easy, free and we set it up through our router so all wifi connected devices are covered.

 

https://store.opendns.com/setup/#/familyshield

 

Please explain to me what Open DNS means? Where are settings? I am the only one on my home computer and I have not seen a lot of junk here but on the work computer, all kinds of things come up. Technically, I am the only one using it but when I am not there others could use if they have the password which is written down in case I drop dead...

[StephanieZ]

Off topic a bit, but if I had a kid engaging in arms race tactics like this, they would be seriously curtailed from unsupervised access to the internet.

 

I'm pretty liberal on what I consider age appropriate, but legally imposed boundaries need to be respected if nothing else.

 

I guess I'm fortunate that my oldest has much preferred boundaries that spare her from feeling like she needs eye bleach.

 

I agree completely. It is just a matter of whether you are effectively curtailing unsupervised access to the internet . . . With online classes, etc, limiting all internet really limits what we can do, and so it's been a matter of figuring out how to supervise access. Indeed, for many months at a time, we've had to limit access to a single computer in a public part of the home. FWIW, neither of my girls has been a problem with internet access at all. Boys are a different beast, IME. I've never had difficulty with accessing illegal content . ..  it's just inappropriate content. ;) A lot of what is legal and readily available on the internet is very inappropriate for minors (and adults, lol), IMHO. 

[StephanieZ]

Please explain to me what Open DNS means? Where are settings? I am the only one on my home computer and I have not seen a lot of junk here but on the work computer, all kinds of things come up. Technically, I am the only one using it but when I am not there others could use if they have the password which is written down in case I drop dead...

 

When you use the internet connection, your device/computer accesses a "server" out in the internet that acts as a gateway to the internet. Your computer asks to view amazon.com, but it doesn't go directly there, it "asks" the server to route it to that site. In general, your computer goes to your internet provider's server. In my case, Comcast, or whoever your internet provider is .. .  (This is how China, etc, limits access to banned sites, by controlling servers, I believe). However, you can direct your modem/router/whatever to go to some OTHER server service instead of your default internet provider. OpenDNS is a non-profit (I think) organization that allows you to direct ALL your internet traffic through THEIR servers instead of your internet provider's service. By doing this, you can then make selections to ban various categories (and/or individual sites) of websites, and OpenDNS is pretty effective in categorizing sites to ban inappropriate ones. The basic service is effective and useful and free, and even allows you to review a month or so of sites visited data. I pay for some upgraded level of service (maybe 30-50/yr, I don't remember or care) that allows a little bit more flexibility in designating sites (perhaps that is why I can ban individual sites) and also allows me to view months (year?) worth of data. The great thing about using OpenDNS (or some comparable server) is that ALL internet access is controlled (unless you exempt one or more computers or devices, which you can do, say on your or your spouse's personal locked down computer/device), so any new computer, iPod, phone, etc that is using your wifi doesn't need to be locked down all over again. Any visiting kids, etc, using your wifi on their devices won't be able to evade the OpenDNS (that I know of. . . I am sure a determined tech-savvy teen might be able to.)

 

HOWEVER, you do need to make sure that someone doesn't know how to evade the server settings on your router/modem  . . . Preventing "administrator" access from laptops is the way I found to do this. If a child has admin account (or only account) on a laptop, they may well be able to re-route their server route . . . that is what my son did when I first installed OpenDNS but did not know to lock down admin accounts. You can probably evade this by putting passwords or whatever on the modem/router stuff, but IME, my kid could reset the modem/router easily with admin access on a computer on the network. 

 

I've found OpenDNS very easy to use and effective in general. All the other nanny programs I tried to use were very labor intensive and constantly blocked access to school websites, etc. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Please explain to me what Open DNS means? Where are settings? I am the only one on my home computer and I have not seen a lot of junk here but on the work computer, all kinds of things come up. Technically, I am the only one using it but when I am not there others could use if they have the password which is written down in case I drop dead...

Like the janitor late at night?  (Just another possibility. . .   please don't be offended if you're a janitor.  I did that work through grad school and I could have if I'd wanted to, though I didn't. . . .)