On Kids, Butts, and Google Image Search
The other day my wife informed me that Son #2 (currently seven years old) had run a Google images search for ‘butts’ on her MacBook when he was supposedly searching for information on reptiles. And yes, he was sitting right out in the middle of the dining room in plain view when he did it, though we didn’t see it happen.
When I asked him about it, he was very forthright. Yes, he had searched for butts. But according to him, he actually had been searching for pictures of alligators, and then got the bright idea of trying to figure out where an alligator’s butt is located — he has a suspicion that it’s right up there under the base of the tail, but he wanted to be sure. 
He went on to say that he forgot that he was doing a “picture search,” and accidentally wound up with a bunch of pictures of butts (thankfully he didn’t do a web search, as the results are actually worse).
He went on to say:
“But they all had clothes on. Well, except one, but that was an ancient Egyptian. And there was also a lady wearing a bookini.”
(And yes, he actually used the term “bookini.”)
When I did the fatherly thing and asked him if he had any questions or wanted to talk about anything, he got a disgusted look on his face and said:
“No. I’ve seen enough.”
And that, dear friends, is our first lesson in keeping an even tighter leash on the kids when it comes to internet access.
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Heh, one aspect of raising kids that I’m not looking forward to. Humorous when it happens to others, though, I will admit.
Comment by — Oct 31st 2007 @ 1:10 pmBOO-kini? How appropriate is that? I’m impressed that your wife checked the history and was all over that–so many parents don’t know how to do it.
Comment by — Oct 31st 2007 @ 11:05 pmActually, I think she discovered it by accident… She was doing a quick search of her own for butt images and the browser just auto-completed the search term.
(Just kidding. Yes, she checked the history.)
And WOW… I didn’t even make the connection between BOO-kini and Halloween — and neither did he when he said it… Funny.
Comment by dad — Oct 31st 2007 @ 11:14 pmGoogle image search has a safe search you can put on. Once you do an image search, just click on preferences to the right of the go button.
You can apply a moderate or strict filter, then he’ll probably just see cigarette butts…
Comment by — Nov 2nd 2007 @ 12:26 pmIt won’t be long before they’re doing that “butt” search for “boobs”.
Comment by Lance — Nov 7th 2007 @ 7:39 amMy 4 boys are currently 6, 8, 10, & 12.
Anime is currently the worst. It gets lumped in with hen tie (phonetically spelled so as to not trip any web filters) which is adult anime for those who didn’t know.
Fun times!
Oh great, Lance… Something to look forward to, I guess.
What (aside from supervision) do you guys do to keep your kids on the straight and narrow when it comes internet access?
Comment by dad — Nov 7th 2007 @ 8:07 amTry out opendns.com
It should improve your internet speed and they offer parental controls. I just tested it…and it blocked the typical bad sites that I could think of. It does take a few minutes to take effect when you first set it up. Plus, they offer a whitelist in case there is a site you want to visit but OpenDNS has blocked.
Comment by Ryan — Nov 15th 2007 @ 7:58 pmWhat’s wrong with you people? Don’t your kids have the right to look up butts, boobs, et cetera? I certainly was by the time I was 11. Let the poor fellas be!
Comment by David — Feb 11th 2008 @ 3:01 pmlol…white people XD dude im white to but im not… that white… if your sons curiose just leave him alone lol
Comment by kid — Mar 30th 2009 @ 10:30 am