Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Microsoft Bing in Hot Water Over Porn Access

by Kendra Cunningham on June 2, 2009 at 06:01 PM



Just this week, Microsoft introduced Bing, a new search engine, to the world. Despite some positive reviews, the Google competitor is already stirring up controversy. It turns out that, with just a few simple clicks in the site's security settings, videos can be previewed from within Bing's search results. So, what's all the hoopla about? Any video can be played, which means pornography can be displayed once safety settings are turned off.

Once you turn off the search engine's safety features (which requires no age verification), pornographic videos may show up in your video results depending on your search terms. Because Bing automatically plays videos when you hover over them with your mouse, you may be surprised with an unexpectedly graphic video; we tested this out, and stumbled upon a few not-so-tasteful videos. Microsoft has issued instructions through Twitter -- prompted by Loic Le Meur, a high-profile blogger -- on how to adjust your security settings.

While we agree that Microsoft should include age verification in Bing's security settings, this seems to be blown a bit out of proportion. It's hardly surprising that you could come across content that's not work safe when you turn off safe search. [From: Telegraph]

Tags: bing, microsoft, porn, pornography, search, search engines, SearchEngines

Comments

3

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular