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Bing (http://www.bing.com/)

common sense media says

Excellent search engine with really poor protections.

parents & educators say
  • 27% say sexual content is an issue
  • 27% say safety or privacy is an issue
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What parents need to know

Parents need to know that Bing, an excellent search tool, makes it too easy to find and watch Internet sex videos. All a child has to do is hover a mouse over a sex video thumbnail and it starts playing. Unless you set your preferences to "Strict" we actually don't recommend kids use Bing. (Shortly after launch, Microsoft came up with a fix that involves pasting the url www.explicit.bing.net into Internet Explorer's list of sites to block. While this works, most parents either won't know about this fix or actually sit down and block the porn access.)

Educational value: Bing's unique information-finding tools could come in handy for research papers and other school projects.
Positive messages: Not applicable.
Violence: Not applicable.
Sex: Bing's easy-to-disable adult-content filter combined with its smart-motion video
feature makes previewing porn a snap. Just hover the mouse over a preview
thumbnail and it plays the clip without even launching the porn site.
Language: Not applicable.
Consumerism: One of Bing's stated goals is to make it easier to make a purchasing decision. Keep an eye out as it develops for more and more targeted advertising based on personal behavior. As with Google, ads take the form of search results labeled as sponsored links. These paid listings are not obtrusive and sometimes useful.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking: Not applicable.
Our ratings and reviews are informed by child development guidelines. Learn more.

More on Bing

What to talk about

Talk to your kids
Families can talk about sex before kids see it in action on the Web, which has for some time now been rife with free, hard-core porn; Bing just makes it easier to find. Respect for oneself and others, disease, pregnancy and parents’ personal beliefs can all be a part of the discussion.

Is it any good?

Is it any good?
 
Bing is fast and boasts some whiz-bang features, such as a search history. (Why has this taken so long? I'll probably dump Google and use Bing for this feature alone.) Bing really does make some decisions easier. However, some parents will think Bing is a tad too good at searching the Internet. Unlike other search engines, Bing pops up a dialog box whenever it finds adult content and asks if the user would like to turn off the Safe Search feature. (Google and Yahoo bury this setting on a preferences page.) The result? Even computer novices can easily disable the built-in filter and get an eyeful by passing the cursor over Bing's live video thumbnails. Bing is so new that filtering tools like Symantec's OnlineFamily Norton might not work with it. Until software updates are available – or Microsoft changes Bing – parents might want to monitor kids' Internet research.
This review was written by Carla Thornton
 
 

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What parents & educators say

10
Based on 22 parent & educator reviews:
  • 27% say sexual content is an issue
  • 27% say safety or privacy is an issue
  • 27% say it's educational
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Most useful reviews by all members

hunter98
kid, 13 years old
7
 
really? commonsense really?
commonsense you over rated again its just another search engine its good and helps
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LIMO2009
kid, 10 years old
8
 
THERE'S NO BIG DEAL ABOUT IT
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annoyed14
teen, 17 years old
2
 
It's a search engine!
It SEARCHES the internet, and shows what it finds. Don't blame the website. Your review is horrendously stupid.
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RSKKZ
teen, 14 years old
2
 
I'm Surprised I'm Not Dumber Than I Am Using This Website!!!
Okay, I have never used Bing in my life and I probably never will, but I just want to tell you what I think of your review, CSM. It's total crap! How can you say that a search engine is NOT FOR KIDS just because you can find sexual videos on that site! So? It's a freakin' search engine! If you searched "man getting torn to pieces" you would find pictures of a man getting torn to pieces, if you searched "full episode of Barney," you would find a full episode of Barney! It's the same thing for Google and YouTube: a search engine is too broad to give a content rating because it has so much different content in it. Believe me, my parents saw inappropriate material on Google once and they thought nothing of it. They didn't BAN me from using Google! For this review, CSM isn't talking common sense!
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Poison Ivey
teen, 17 years old
10
 
So I use google and stuff, but it's the same! I know those commercials make it look like easy to use and stuff, but really? It's the same. And honestly, CSM. No kids? Unless you consider us kids BLOD or something (Thats german, for stupid lol). We know what we want and if its porn your searching for, its porn you're gonna get. Same goes for any search website. Enough said. :o
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mingdii
teen, 13 years old
4
 
What aree you talking about?
WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT? YOU GODDA BE KIDDING ME. YOU MARK A MICROSOFT SEARCH ENGINE AS NOT FOR KIDS! THATS RIDICULUS! I GO ON BING ALMOST ALL THE TIME WHEN I GET ON THE COMPUTER. YOUR TELLING KIDS TO NOT GO ON THIS WEBSITE JUST BECAUSE IT ALLOWS YOU TO TYPE IN WHAT YOU WANT? THATS CRAZY AND STUPENDOUS!
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Scream
kid, 12 years old
2
 
OK.
Nothing wrong with this site.
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Abecedarian
teen, 17 years old
8
 
It's time to stop underestimating teens.
Listen- we're smarter than you assume. Sure, sexual materials are available on the web. It's merely a function of society. But to consider bing, a search engine a website that encourages this activity is outrageous. Yes, we're not adults, and perhaps parents are set to protect us. But underestimating our judgement isn't going to do anything. Adults don't seem to realize that we're conscious of the reciprocation of our actions. We don't need the internet censored, and especially not search engines like Bing.
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turtlekins
teen, 16 years old
5
 
If your kid wants porn, they will get porn. Trust me. Its not the search engines fault that your kid is searching stuff they shouldnt be. Guess what? There are a million sites with naked women just waiting to be explored. Bing doesnt make it more likely for a kid to see porn. If your little kid truly wants porn theyre not going to give up if google or bing doesnt work. P.S. It doesnt ruin a kids life forever if they accidentally (or purposely) see porn once or twice. Even if YOU think its immoral. People do immoral things everyday. If anybody who every did anything deemed immoral ended up in jail, we'd be long out of cells.
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TheSuperSaiyan
teen, 13 years old
7
 
Very useful and harmless
You get what you wish for, and likewise, on Bing, you get what you search for. There isn't anything wrong inappropriate unless you purpousely search for it. I think it's a really great search site to find whatever you're looking for, and it would be great to use for school projects or reseach.
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FreedomFromCen ...
adult
10
 
Hey Guys, lets rate a search engine 17+ because you can find porn on the interent! (Horrible Idea)
Really? Why not rate Google 17+ then? Common sense media, you've done it again, in a bad way. This is just another search engine, i like the video preview features, but it's not much different from google. If you parents can't give your kids the simple talk about sex being natural if they do come across porn (and if your gasping to sue or blame Microsoft for exposing their "innocent" eyes to what you call "Horrible perversion" when its probably something as simple as sex), then you shouldn't have kids in the first place, their gonna see sex, and want to see it (as teens) anyway. No big deal as long as they know the risks with sex.
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ryanb1127
kid, 12 years old
10
 
kids can go on it - NO BIG DEAL!
i agree with carcargirl on this! ok so i go on that all the time and look at music videos thats just fine right!?!?!?!? the bad stuff only comes up if u search for it and most kids never search for anything bad! they are just innocent kids looking at facts for school reports or looking at music videos! atleast do iffy! dont do NOT FOR KIDS! cuz kids can go on it and there is no big deal if they dont search for anything bad or inapporpriate!
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kid, 12 years old
13
 
BING IS BETTER THAN GOOGLE!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE BING!
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teen, 14 years old
13
 
BING IS BETTER THAN GOOGLE!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE BING!
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kid, 11 years old
13
 
BING IS BETTER THAN GOOGLE!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE BING!
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lollypop12
teen, 14 years old
2
 
Its cool. when they say not for kids thats only depends on what you are looking at. yes there are probably some dirty pictures but thats only if you look for them. me myself have only seen one that cought my attention as bad and that was just one time when I looked up candy, so I could see if they had any good pictures of candy. it does have some educational factors, like if you looked up volcanos you might see a photo of a volcano and then a little story about the volcano. you should definitely check it out!
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practicalquake
teen, 14 years old
10
 
Innovative and Useful
It was insane about what "CommonSenseMedia" rated it. Heck, not for kids, It is a search engine for heck sake. Any search engine you go to whether it is Yahoo, Google or Bing is able to view sexually explicit content. A search engine is able to find anything whether is sexually explicit content or just plain research hence the name. A search engine is based on the users morality values and/or whatever they're searching for. Bing is a useful search engine that in my opinion surpasses Google (not in hits) but rather effeciency. 5/5
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bournefan
kid, 13 years old
2
 
WOW no kids you gotta be kidding me. it like google a SEARCH ENGINE SEARCH ENGINE highlight word SEARCH
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coolkat
kid, 13 years old
5
 
what the crap is going on
nothing worong with this someone slap csm in the face
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daniel.nichola ...
adult
2
 
CSM is wack.
Honestly, if your kids want to find porn, they will. It's not that hard to type in "nude chicks" in ANY search engine. Also, this engine sucks. Google is the best, period.
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ON: Content is appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child, some content may not be right for some kids
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