New safety filter for an enhanced orkut experience

Orkut is one of the most popular web destinations in India today with users from multiple age groups and even more diverse backgrounds. In fact, the content on orkut is a true reflection of this diversity. Check these very cool communities that are helping users express their unique personalities and interests on photography, education, literature, environment and rural development. Most of these communities reflect the power of social networking. However, sometimes users post content that can diminish the experience for a large number of our users.

Keeping this in mind, we decided to introduce a new feature on orkut: the "Safety Filter". The safety filter will automatically screen and mark unsafe, mature content that could be potentially upsetting but may not violate our policies. The safety filter will be turned 'ON' by default for all users in India, and photos or text with mature content will be put behind a warning page. In addition, this content will no longer show up in search results. The reason for introducing this filter is simple: given the magnitude of content that gets uploaded every second, we want to make it easier for our users to control their orkut experience.

This feature is in addition to our existing approach to porn, spam and impersonation- all of which are clear violations of our policies and will be removed as soon as orkut users bring these to our notice. The safety filter helps protect users from the content on orkut that sometimes causes people to disagree: that is, material that some people may find acceptable but others may find offensive. You can read more about this difficult area of user-generated content in this blogpost [link: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/free-expression-and-controversial.html].

We are using technology to filter as much content as possible however, since no filter is 100 percent accurate we will continue to trust our users to report abuse, and will take prompt action when it violates our terms and conditions

We hope this new update will make orkut an even more fun and safe place for all of you.