Web censorship? Google makes it harder to find porn

It is no secret that Google is constantly making changes to its search algorithm. But this one change has sparked off quite a debate. It seems that Google has now ensured that sexually explicit images and results won’t appear in search unless you specifically type words like ‘porn’ or ’naked’. According to a report on CNET, a Google representative said, “We are not censoring any adult content, and want to show users exactly what they are looking for – but we aim not to show sexually-explicit results unless a user is specifically searching for them.  If you’re looking for adult content, you can find it without having to change the default setting – you just may need to be more explicit in your query if your search terms are potentially ambiguous. The image search settings now work the same way as in Web search."  [caption id=“attachment_557472” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Screengrab of Google Search.[/caption] On Reddit a discussion thread has sparked off stating that in the US Google images safesearch is MANDATORY for US IP’s. It seems that Google is now avoiding accidental porn results in your image search. According to this article on ZdNet here’s how this works: For instance, searching for “breasts” will retrieve a vast array of clothed results, but a more specific “naked breasts” search term will dish out, well, naked breasts of a more explicit nature. The same goes with pretty much every other explicit term. So yes if you are hunting for porn get ready to spell it out  clearly. It also seems that according to the new settings, Safe Search now won’t have on and off, but rather an “filter explicit content” option which will remove any such content.