Sexually explicit content/titles: Any way to filter those out so they don't show up?

[beeyebickiebuy]

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Eneelia wrote:

There is an advanced search option should you need to filter further. 

In addition I hardly think that asking Barnes and Noble to develop a filter for use (which would cost money to produce, support and update) to search "FREE" books they are not making any money on is a bit foolhardy.   Bookstores and sellers are stuggling. 

ps I can tell you as that alot of the approved and allowed reading your 10 to 15 year olds can access is crap.  Not sexually explicit but its crap.  A 'explicit' filter won't save a 13 year old girl from a novel targeted at young women that reenforces societies ideas that she is worthless unless she is pretty and does what her friends do. 

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I wish that I could give you 100 laurels for that post.

[RHWright]

I'm not usually one to cry/whine, "but Amazon does it better," but in this case...

A quick search over there for free books produced none of the objectionable content. You actually have to make an effort to get to it.

Admittedly, their algorithms for many things are more subtle and advanced, but you would think for this B&N could put some effort into it. Admittedly, there's not much direct profit in making it easier/better to find the free content you want, but the upside in customer relations and being seen as a family friendly company...

Also, the overall search and recommendations functions on B&N are due for an overhaul. They still keep showing J.D. Robb's mystery novels or Ryan's Return  under Science Fiction & Fantasy, for example.

So kill two birds with one stone. Overhhaul search in general and add more subtle filters so people can avoid erotic content.

[Ricco13]

I don't understand the problem. I take my child to BN and let them wander the childrens section, there's no covers with almost nude people there. Why can't you restrict the shopping view to just childrens book for children say under 10? We have content blocks for TV and computers. I personaly find the covers offensive and have never seen such in the stores? Why am I subjected to them online?

[kamas716]

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Ricco13 wrote:
I don't understand the problem. I take my child to BN and let them wander the childrens section, there's no covers with almost nude people there. Why can't you restrict the shopping view to just childrens book for children say under 10? We have content blocks for TV and computers. I personaly find the covers offensive and have never seen such in the stores? Why am I subjected to them online?

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Have you tried the "kids" filter on your search?  Up at the top of the page, right in middle of the line that starts "Books|NOOK Books|..." there is "Kids".  You can also get there by choosing "kids' books" at the end of the search line, just click on the down arrow and it's listed right under music.

[RHWright]

Somebody may be listening.

I did some typical searches for free books. (Grid view, 90 per page)

kids 0.00

teens 0.00      Neither produced any objectionable results

mystery 0.00     Nothing on page 1

science fiction 0.00     A couple from the "Naughty Nooners" series on page 2

Compared to previous searches, where multiple erotic novels would crowd onto page one of the sci-fi results, this is a large improvement.

It's never going to be perfect. Titles will always slip through, especially if they're trying to be tricky. But at least the defined kids/teen area seems clear and the genre categories are much, much improved.

P.S. Not near a wi-fi connection to try it from my device. Will try that later on and report back on results.

[Wylee]

well, I got a Nook Color for Christmas, and at first I really thought I would buy a couple for my two

boys next Christmas, but because of the Sexually explicit stuff that is all over the place

when I do just about any search especially 0.00 or free, I will not be purchasing Nooks for

my two boys...  time to research the Kindle and see if things are better there.

Now this is off topic but I gotta say it:   I've been an Amazon user for years, and got the Nook after doing

a lot of research, and it seems like the better device, but between the two stores,

AMAZON RULES.

[RHWright]

@Wylee: Yes, if you just search "0.00" or "Free" you are more likely to encounter a diversity of books, including those with more adult or erotic content.

If you modify that search with a genre, say kids or teen or science fiction, my recent searches have found that most, if not all, of that content is filtered out.

Even without it, my search for "free" under Nook Books (90 title grid) returned only 4 explicitly erotic titles. None of the covers contained offensive content and all were clearly erotic from the title. That's less than 10% on an overly generalized search—which is bound to be a grab bag.

If you teach your boys to search specifically for what they want—teen books, mysteries, sci-fi, etc—you should run into few problems. Some periodic monitoring of their accounts should assure they are following your rules.

Could the filtering be better? Yes. Are teen (and younger) boys going to find ways to see stuff their moms preferred they didn't? Statistics say yes.

Put you come off as pretty level-headed and fair. If you set out clear expectations, I'd lay bets that your sons will live up to them. Will kids make mistakes? Sure. We all have.

If the worst "mistake" they make in their teens is getting a hold of (and let's admit it, maybe being excited by it), maybe we should all be so lucky. There are so many more serious mistakes out there to make that cause damage that is hard to repair.

Now if your boys are younger, that adds a different level. Personally, I don't think pre-teens and younger should have unfettered, unsupervised access to the Internet anyway, ereader or not. No personal computer in their room, no cell phone, or other gadgets. It's both the responsibility for the item itself and the proper use of it. But that's just my opinion.

Even then, putting a purchase password on the device should keep you able to manage what they are reading at that age.

Can you protect your child 100% from everything you'd prefer they not see? No, though as a parent I understand the urge. Again, you seem level-headed and I believe you can realistically manage the issue.

[Wylee]

RH you are right on all counts.

but if I have a choice to make it less easy for them

to find this material, I'm gonna take it ...  : )

[RHWright]

@Wylee:

You know your situation and your kids the best. I wouldn't presume to second-guess you.

Just wanted to make sure when you made your choice that you had all the facts and information about your options. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing proposition.

Best to you and yours!

[MidnightMom]

I completely disagree. I looked up toy story ....i was appalled. I wouldnt want my teenager seeing what disgusting titles are on there right under woody and buzz. My kids like to browse with me. Theres an easy fix to search filter.

[Irishelf]

You think the results for Toy Story are bad, try searching for kitty!

[paraguay2009]

On the heals of this thread is there a way to search for a word (i am thinking of curse words) and have the nook put a black bar over every occurence of said word? If it isnt possible it would be a great enhancement on any future software upgrades.

[keriflur]

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paraguay2009 wrote:
On the heals of this thread is there a way to search for a word (i am thinking of curse words) and have the nook put a black bar over every occurence of said word? If it isnt possible it would be a great enhancement on any future software upgrades.

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You mean as a personal censorship tool?  It's not currently possible in the software, but it's an interesting idea.

[LarryOnLI]

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keriflur wrote:

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paraguay2009 wrote:
On the heals of this thread is there a way to search for a word (i am thinking of curse words) and have the nook put a black bar over every occurence of said word? If it isnt possible it would be a great enhancement on any future software upgrades.

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You mean as a personal censorship tool?  It's not currently possible in the software, but it's an interesting idea.

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So instead of seeing the word, you would see a black bar indicating it had been redacted.

Of course you would probably know what the word was from the length of the black bar, and the context, not to mention you would know it was one of the words you entered into your censorship list.

So I fail to see what is gained, unless you feel that the actual combination of letters (which is what will be hidden) is offensive, and not the concept behind them (which will still be apparent).

[grandmad]

I would be happy if there was at least a filter for 18 and up content. If one must be 18 to legally view it, then there should be a password protect for that content. I'm particularly upset that a search for "team umizoomi" generates porn. Even worse, the porn is child porn--probably only legal if they have an adult playing the role of the child. It seems that the porn is targetting children with that kind of tag. It's infuriating and disgusting.

[bklvr896]

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grandmad wrote:

I would be happy if there was at least a filter for 18 and up content. If one must be 18 to legally view it, then there should be a password protect for that content. I'm particularly upset that a search for "team umizoomi" generates porn. Even worse, the porn is child porn--probably only legal if they have an adult playing the role of the child. It seems that the porn is targetting children with that kind of tag. It's infuriating and disgusting.

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Interesting, I just searched that term, because I had no idea what it is, and all I got was 20 children's books.  Not saying you didn't get something else, but my searched only turned up some children's books.

[kamas716]

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bklvr896 wrote:

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grandmad wrote:

I would be happy if there was at least a filter for 18 and up content. If one must be 18 to legally view it, then there should be a password protect for that content. I'm particularly upset that a search for "team umizoomi" generates porn. Even worse, the porn is child porn--probably only legal if they have an adult playing the role of the child. It seems that the porn is targetting children with that kind of tag. It's infuriating and disgusting.

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Interesting, I just searched that term, because I had no idea what it is, and all I got was 20 children's books.  Not saying you didn't get something else, but my searched only turned up some children's books.

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Same here.  When I searched all products all I got was a collection of childrens books and DVDs

[Nevermore1]

I'm one of the few who believes that if you don't want your child to "see" certain things then you should be paying attention to what your child is doing. I have two young children and a 14 year old.  I would rather my kids be exposed and ask questions as to why something is appropriate for them to read at their age than sneak around trying to get the stuff to read with out me knowing about it then be too scared to ask questions for fear they'll get in trouble.  A lot of parents today are sheltering their kids too much instead of letting them learn.  When a parent is so against their child even seeing the title or description of a book it just makes those books more tempting to the kids and the kids will feel the need to sneak around to get access to these books and will be reading them and will then be too scared to ask questions (since they aren't supposed to be reading them anyways).  I'm not saying that kids or teenagers should be allowed to read these books but they should know they are out there and parents should be responsible enough to explain to their kids why they are not appropriate for a kid/teen to be reading.  Don't give your child the password and sit with them at the computer when they want to find a new book to purchase.  I'll finish my rant with - don't teach your child to judge a book by it's cover - it makes me sick when I'm in a bookstore and I see a teen ask their Mom if they can purchase a particular book and the response is "I don't like the way that book looks/the picture on the cover so no you can't have it"  I have heard this so many times and a lot of the time the book is a very good book that is appropriate for the kids age.  Even my daughter couldn't believe one Mom who who told her kid that about a book my daughter read when she was about 8 (this kid looked to be about 11-12 years old).  80% of the time the Mom doesn't even touch the the book or read the synopsis on the back cover before giving their response.  If it's a case of you only want to get your your kid 3 books and this is the 4th book they ask for just tell them you only want to buy 3 books or whatever.  Okay, rant over, I know a lot of people aren't going to agree with me and that's fine - you can have your opinion and I'll have mine.

As for any filters set up by BN - one of their older SW updates for the NC added a "kids" tab in the library section.  It looks like this tab is meant to collect all your kids books and apps in one section however they need to review how the content is setup to be chosen.  All of my kid stuff is showing under that tab along with David Pelzer's A Child Called It and Jonathan Kellerman's Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children - these books have some form of the world "child" in the title and description but are definitely not children's books.  I guess if the description or title has some derivative of the word child in it it gets put under that tab.  I do have to wonder sometimes how they set up their filters or choose what category a certain book goes into. If there is a way to remove them from the tab I have yet to figure it out.

[bklvr896]

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Nevermore1 wrote:

As for any filters set up by BN - one of their older SW updates for the NC added a "kids" tab in the library section.  It looks like this tab is meant to collect all your kids books and apps in one section however they need to review how the content is setup to be chosen.  All of my kid stuff is showing under that tab along with David Pelzer's A Child Called It and Jonathan Kellerman's Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children - these books have some form of the world "child" in the title and description but are definitely not children's books.  I guess if the description or title has some derivative of the word child in it it gets put under that tab.  I do have to wonder sometimes how they set up their filters or choose what category a certain book goes into. If there is a way to remove them from the tab I have yet to figure it out.

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I just went and downloaded the metadata for a few books from both BN and Amazon.  Amazingly enough, BN did have the two I quickly looked at categorized as Erotica, while Amazon did not.  Amazon also uses categories and keywords, there were no keyword downloaded from the BN site, but that could simply be how the software is picking up the data.

But, the only way for anytype of filter to work, would be to use either the categories or the keywords. And that would need to be provided consistently by the publishers as one could not expect any retailer to have some review each and every book and determine what category it belongs in.  (And this could also lead to censorship, since who's definition of a category do you use?).

As I said, on another thread, I believe (or maybe this one), this must be harder to accomplish that we think, otherwise I would expect someone other than Smashwords would have set it up and as far as I can tell, no one has exclusionary filters set up.  

I don't program web pages any longer but I do write queries against databases and I know that I have to be exceedingly careful when I write a query that includes "not" something.  It's so darn easy to get bad results.

[paraguay2009]

I have a solution (by the way I am an adult and don't want to see this crap). Just use amazon.com to search for your books. I have never had any kind of porn pop up when doing my searches there. Also, their website is so much better than B&N ie... much faster, easier to navigate (at least for me), etc...
I do most of my searches on amazon then go over to BN to make my purchases. Problem solved.

ps.

I am surprised that 

BN doesn't have a better

website and better filters.

They probably have an 

email address we can right

to no?