Safe Mode on Yahoo Image Search Fails to Protect Kids from Porn

SHANGHAI — A British school in China has criticized Internet portal Yahoo for failing to install proper filtering tools on its image search after students using the service at school were inadvertently exposed to online pornography.

While using the Yahoo image search function on safe mode, a teacher asked her students to enter “www” as a search term for a class project on the Internet. According to the teacher, both Yahoo.com and Yahoo.co.uk image search results returned an array of pornographic pictures, as well as a picture of a bloody animal carcass.

“These adult images were not entirely what the teacher at the school was hoping to see when doing some research on the World Wide Web,” Ray Miles, network coordinator for the school, said. “And it is a good job he brought it to our attention before the senior school was let loose on this project. Needless to say we have banned the students from accessing Yahoo until further notice.”

According to officials at the school who notified Yahoo, the company is now aware of the problem and has referred the matter to its engineering team for review.

“Yahoo is aware of this issue and is working to resolve it as quickly as possible,” a company spokesman said.

At time of filing, an XBIZ query using Yahoo image search returned numerous hardcore pictures.

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