Bing is Microsoft's search engine designed to rival Google with advanced features including instant preview of Web sites and ­videos, automatic categorization of search results, and more. Bing's most controversial innovation is its "smart motion" technology which allows video search results to play when you hover your mouse over them. While Google's video search results return static images, Bing's presents a page full of video thumbnails you can play immediately, without clicking into them. To test how easy it is to watch explicit material, I did a search on "porn" and was shocked at the results.

You can, of course, set Bing's preferences to "Strict" to filter out sexually explicit material by clicking "Preferences" in Bing's top-right corner.

The thing that really surprised me, though, is that Internet browsers don't share settings. If you're using Firefox and have already set your kids' google search engine to filter out sexually explicit content, that setting won't apply to Bing -- you'll also need to set Bing's "Strict" filter. And you should, now.

If you're using Internet Explorer, there's a secure way to block explicit content, as well as specific Web sites. In IE, go to Tools and select Internet Options. Click on the Content tab, and choose Enable. Then click on the Approved Sites tab. Here you can type in the url www.explicit.bing.net, as well as any url of any Web site you want to block.  IE's Content Advisor settings are password-protected so you can't change the settings unless you know the password. (Google's SafeSearch setting is not password-protected, so highly motivated kids can easily change it. But remember, search filters don't catch everything, anyway.)

But please don't get me wrong. I'm all for innovation. In fact, with Bing's stated intention to help users make better decisions -- including purchase decisions, trip planning, health research, and finding local businesses -- I'll probably use it to look up information on those topics. And if I'm looking for the latest silly cat video, I know I'll find it quickly using Bing. These features are cool, but some can be too risky. Even innocuous searches can return video results that you don't want kids to see.

Seeing all those porn videos gave me the creeps. I made sure that my son's browser preferences were set to SafeSearch, and then, using his browser, I visited Bing and set its preferences to "Strict." I know I won't be able to catch everything or keep up with every new technology that will potentially let him see inappropriate content. So I try to keep our lines of communication open and stay on the lookout for new Internet landmines.