We discussed this a bit a couple of weeks ago. I finally got a response
from Google
about 'securing' the Google image search parameters.
Note the suggestion that your proxy server may be able to enforce the
filtering!!
They didn't totally answer the query, but here's what they said:
-----------------( copy )-------------------
Subject: Re: School use of Google, and Safesearch issues
Dear Terry,
Thank you for contacting us.
As you can imagine, filtering in an automated way is quite difficult.
It is very difficult to write a program that can catch all offensive
webpages and pictures. On the flip side, with 4 billion documents
and 880 million images, we cannot use human editors to find offensive
content. Thus, our filter is not perfect.
The safest setting that Google has is "Strict filtering" which can be
turned on through our preferences page:
http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en
If you select Strict filtering here you will get a very strict filter.
Sadly, a lot of the relevant pictures are also filtered when this is
in use, and it occasionally lessens the quality of our results.
If schools in your district deploy a proxy on your web traffic, it may
be possible to configure your proxy to append "&safe=strict" to all
requests to images.google.com. This will cause strict safesearch to
be used regardless of the preferences page setting.
I would like to apprise you that Google is currently researching an
image search product that might be more suitable for schoolage
children. Should that research become a product, I will notify you
when it is available.
Sincerely,
Avni Shah
Product Manager, Google.com
Original Message Follows:
------------------------
From: Terry King <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: School use of Google, and Safesearch issues
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 08:16:22 -0500
Dear Google,
I am a consultant on IT stuff for a local school district. Lately
they've had some problems with kids typing in first names in Google
Images and getting pornographic image results. Looking at SafeSearch,
it blocks this stuff pretty well, but it's very easy to reset the
preferences. Kids learn fast.
Any suggestions on how to 'lock down' this setting?? Could it be
related to a registry setting, etc??
Thanks!
Terry King
[log in to unmask]
Regards, Terry King ...In The Woods In Vermont
Waits River Valley School
[log in to unmask]
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