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

[beeyebickiebuy]

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RHWright wrote:

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But again, we do not need a "ratings system." For me, this is just the slippery slope to censorship and stifled creativity. ...

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Amen.  

[Hmr28]

Um, Yeah, no ratings and no filtering out, otherwise books like the Bible, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Twilight, The Color Purple, and The Chocolate War, etc and poems like Song of Myself end up on the cutting room floor. One person's porn is another's mild sexual situation. Almost all adult books have some sexual situations present in them. After all most adults have sex! I read mystery, sci-fi, romance, young adult, women's fiction, thriller and horror books and I'd be hard pressed to find many without at least a little sex in them. I'd rather not have my reading options cut down to nothing.'

If you don't want your kids reading adult fiction then filter using the advanced filter and use the ages 3-5 filter, I'm pretty sure you won't find "porn" there.

[BarbaraC1977]

I understand that B&N doesn't want to be in the censoring business.  But I have my Google search on my PCs set to avoid "adult content," and by and large, it does a pretty good job, but does not restrict my searches for medical guidance, books that could be considered somewhat sexual, etc. 

The B&N free books section is really overwhelmed with "titillation titles" that are annoying to me (and I'm not a prude or naive.)

Maybe this will get B&N's attention--I've hesitated about recommending my NookColor and the capability to get free books in addition to paid because of this.  My friends don't have an interest in this junk, either. 

Barnes & Noble--FIND A WAY to manage this better, as search engines do, PLEASE.

[Desert_Brat]

One of the other online book sites (Baen, I think, could be Smashwords) does have a "prude filter" and it works pretty well.

[bklvr896]

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Desert_Brat wrote:

One of the other online book sites (Baen, I think, could be Smashwords) does have a "prude filter" and it works pretty well.

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It's Smashwords however if you read the "What is it" it says this in part.  Please note that by filtering out adult material, you not only filter out books with adult language, scenes and sex, but you also filter out books with no sexual content whatsoever.

I've never tried using it so I don't know exactly how it works, but that may be one of the issues with filtering something out, you filter out books that don't fit the category and and you may be interested in.

[TXAnnie]

On this same topic:  I downloaded a free book without checking it out as thoroughly as I should have.  Now when I get an email from B&N about books I might be interested in due to my recent "purchases," I get sexually explicit books.  It makes me cringe.

[beeyebickiebuy]

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TXAnnie wrote:

On this same topic:  I downloaded a free book without checking it out as thoroughly as I should have.  Now when I get an email from B&N about books I might be interested in due to my recent "purchases," I get sexually explicit books.  It makes me cringe.

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We all get presented with suggestions that do not interest us.  For example I have no interest in books where the subject matter centers on vampires.  When I see that a book has this theme I pass on it.  I ignore it.  I forget about it, and move on.  I suggest that everyone do likewise with stuff in which they have no interest, rather than expect B&N to create some complicated filtering mechanism, which cannot possibly please everyone.

[TXAnnie]

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beeyebickiebuy wrote:

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TXAnnie wrote:

On this same topic:  I downloaded a free book without checking it out as thoroughly as I should have.  Now when I get an email from B&N about books I might be interested in due to my recent "purchases," I get sexually explicit books.  It makes me cringe.

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We all get presented with suggestions that do not interest us.  For example I have no interest in books where the subject matter centers on vampires.  When I see that a book has this theme I pass on it.  I ignore it.  I forget about it, and move on.  I suggest that everyone do likewise with stuff in which they have no interest, rather than expect B&N to create some complicated filtering mechanism, which cannot possibly please everyone.

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I just commented on not appreciating sexually explicit books being advertised to me based on a purchase.  Any other topic would not bother me as I do get genres that I am not interested in buying, but will take a free book.  

However, getting ads for sexually explicit material does bother me.

[kivvie]

Literature and pulp fiction has used sex as a central plot device since the beginning of time. While I can completely understand not wanting the material, doing broad-brush searches will get you broad results.

As an English teacher, there are definitely items I do not "want" my students reading. There are times I will ask a student to bring a permission slip for some (Meredith Gentry series!) for reading during silent reading time. However, I would rather have kids reading than not.

Parenting is the key issue here. It might be nice for B&N to install a "prude filter," but it would be just as advantageous to learn how to form a search that will get you more suitable results. You can filter out certain publishers, you can require certain terms, all kinds of options with a boolean search.

On a humorous note, I was SHOCKED at what came up when I was looking for some alternate short story options for class and searched "Asian short stories." However, it might have been better to search for "Asian authors writing awards short stories anthologies." That type of search was a little better organized than my first thought.

[LIVES4BOOKS]

I have to chime in here and say that this is also my biggest pet peeve with B&N!!! We have five Nooks in our household and four are owned by little girls aged 9-12. I am no prude, believe me, but I don't have any interest in being inundated with this garbage myself everytime I search for free books, much less exposing my kids to the explicit cover art and suggestive titles that fill the search results. I have even seen one that has a cartoon drawing that resembles a child's picture book, titled "The Princess and the PENIS!" WHAT?! WHY is it so much to ask that these books that are extremely sexual or worse, potentially ambiguous as children's books, not be shown in general searches??  I have seen covers with bare bottoms, naked couples embracing, extremely sexual language in titles, and more. They do not put graphically violent images up, and I don't walk into a brick and mortar B&N only to face rows of books with nudity on the cover art....I don't quite understand how this is different?? PLEASE B&N, if I didn't have to monitor my kids' browsing so strenously you would get a LOT more of my money, I would even be likely to give my girls a monthly "allowance" of NookBooks!

[NookonErik]

@The folks who are against a filter:

Your arguments only make sense (to me) if my choice to use a filter effects your non-filtered search results.

Just about every operating system, search engine etc. has some sort of "parental control" password protection, or search result filter. 

So what?

Should schools NOT filter the search results?

Should schools include every book in the B&N catalog in their libraries?

If B&N is smart they'd accomodate this. Schools would start buying them!

[RHWright]

@NookonErik:

I, for one, never said I was against making better filtering and search tools available. In fact, I said the opposite, since aside from this issue it is often hard to find the content I want, period, using the exisitng "Advanced Search."

What I was pointing out was that the content for general searches in the adult sections of the website (which is everything not clearly marked children's or teens) should not default to a filtered state, as annoying as having "objectionable" and irrelevant content show up in searches can be.

Yes, there should be better (or any) parental/filtering controls and tools. They should just require a user to opt in to them.

[NookonErik]

Harumph!!!!

[Hmr28]

You know you can use the advanced search and search by age group right???

[JackalopeKing]

Ya know, I wish there was a filter as well. I don't have kids, I just don't like seeing that garbage when I'm browsing books. It's to the point where I don't even browse books on B&N much anymore because half of what comes up is obscene erotica tiles. I really would rather not have to look at porn while trying to find a new book. Sorry, I just don't want to. At all. Quite frankly it's disgusting. 

And the prude filter that was mentioned for another site is absolutely ridiculous. There's a difference between something being for adults and porn. Yes porn is for adults, but not all adult material is porn. I shouldn't have to miss out on reading something with mature/adult themes simply because people think sex is the only thing that's adult/mature. That little rant doesn't matter much though since the filter isn't on B&N. 

What WOULD work here is if when an author publishes erotica they had to apply that label. Not a tag or anything like that, but an identifying piece of information for the book that you can opt out of seeing. From a technical standpoint it wouldn't be hard to implement something like this. Like Google has the different search settings, B&N could have an option to "hide erotica" or whatever label was used to describe these books. 

[defdis]

We wish we had checked out the topic of filtering (or should I say lack of it) regarding the Nook.  Definately would not have bought one for us or our 14 year old daughter if we had known how much 'smut' showed up.  Glad I kept the receipts...very disappointed.

[tmr4]

I'm passing my N1E to my daughter and will deregister it and just sideload books for her to read. I've found content controls generally not as effective as I've wanted them to be and in the end my kids often have access to objectionable material regardless of the control in place.

[bklvr896]

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defdis wrote:

We wish we had checked out the topic of filtering (or should I say lack of it) regarding the Nook.  Definately would not have bought one for us or our 14 year old daughter if we had known how much 'smut' showed up.  Glad I kept the receipts...very disappointed.

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Very few sites have content filtering like what you are asking for.  Smashwords has a filter, but if you turn it on, it filters out the books with sex and those without, according to the site.  Exclusion filtering seems to be more difficult than inclusion filtering given that very few sites I've seen have anything set up to exclude genres.  

[Hmr28]

I really don't see what the big deal is. If you are the type of parent who does not want their teen or child exposed to material you deem unacceptable then be a parent. Choose the books for your kid and sideload them. Don't give them the password. Easy peasy.

But I hate to tell you....many of the same type of books are easily available at the local library.

[Eneelia]

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.