Hi all. I am building a web app and as part of it advertisers can upload
their ad image and website URL to go with their ad. Is there a good way to
detect whether that site is a porn site via php?
If the sites home page contains the words sex, babes, and a few other
choice words, which I'll leave to your imagination, then chances are
it's a porn site.
What chances are those, exactly? One in a blizzard?
This is exactly why filtering realistically for "pornography" is
virtually impossible -- we can't define the problem sufficiently to
derive realistic solutions, and our inherently flawed solutions are weak.
This listserve thread, containing as it does the words "sex" and
"babes" and "porn," has now flagged the PHP list archives as a "porn"
site -- for anyone silly enough to use a simple keyword match to
identify "porn." Such a trap would also catch websites discussing
the social & historical significance of "porn," sites that detail
ways to identify "porn" which might include the FBI's, dictionaries
and encyclopedias that explain "porn," vendors who try to use sexy
keywords to attract visitors to their non-"porn" sites, websites on
human sexuality, websites about safe sex, sites about scientific
research in human sexual response, and on and on and on.
Such a simplistic filter would overlook websites written by people
smart enough to obfuscate the key words, say by imagizing them,
misspelling them, or using metaphorical language.
More to the point, though, "pornography" isn't one concrete thing out
there in the world. It's nebulous, self-defined, ambiguous,
ever-changing, and psychologically and culturally dependent. This is
why anti-pornography laws are pissing into the wind (oops, did I just
commit "porn"?) -- they want to legislate human desire by attempting
to define one corner of creative expression, then discover that
that's like trying to contain any aspect of the human spirit. You
can only accomplish it partially and temporarily by brute force or
intellectual repression or both.
Better to challenge those aspects of our culture that breed men who
take and take with no empathy for their victims.
I don't think an automated solution (PHP or otherwise) is
feasible. The best you can do is to create a club advertisers can
ask to join but can remain in only if their ads meet your
approval. There's no machine that can judge what's "porn" --
machines get turned on and disgusted by a whole different set of
words and images than we do -- you know, like muddy screwdrivers and
oily vises -- you're going to have to do it yourself. Look at each
image and judge for yourself. At least you can rest assured that
your own judgement is sound.
Regards,
Paul
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