Porn Spam on Google Maps


Screenshot of Loch Ness on Google Maps.

User Generated Content is great, innit? As a company, I want users to submit photos, so I don't have to do any content curation. Moderation? Nah mate, stick some AI on there to filter out anything offensive and we're golden. *sigh* James Whatley (inactive)@WhatleydudeSurprised Loch Ness isn't trending tbqh.❤️ 8💬 0♻️ 021:36 - Sat 07 August 2021James Whatley (inactive)@WhatleydudeReplying to @WhatleydudeSearching for Loch Ness on Google Maps is certainly an eye opener if you decide to look aroun…

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Civic Hygiene


Trans pride flag.

Imagine, just for a moment, that the Government wanted to keep a record of everyone's sexuality. They need to know this detailed demographic data because it will be highly useful in civic planning. It will help them work out what provision needs to be made for sexual health services, how many children are likely to be born, how many schools to build, etc. You trust the Government, you voted for them, you and your friends have nothing to hide with regards to your sexuality. But! Shock…

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Strawberries and Teabags


David Cameron wants to block certain "pornographic" search terms. He joins a long list of MPs who simply don't understand what they're talking about - like Claire Perry, Andy Burnham, and Helen Goodman. I've talked before about my time working as an "Adult Material Classifier" for Vodafone UK. In short, my team and I used to watch pornographic videos and classify whether they were suitable for inclusion on Vodafone live. There were the usual limitations (no more than two participants, all…

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#O2Fail - What You Need To Know About Mobile Phone Content Control


WARNING This article and pages it links to, contain information about pornography and sex education which may be offensive to Daily Mail readers. These are the hurried lunchtime writings of a chap with too much on his plate. So, O2 has apparently angered the Internet Gods by switching on its Adult Content Filter. This means anyone who wants to look at adult material on the web will have to pay a fee to prove they are over 18. Of course, their filter is broken - so it's caught sites like…

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Feminism in London - 2009


On Sunday, I attended the Feminism in London 2009 conference. This Is What A Feminist Looks Like (AKA spot the odd one out) The conference was inspiring, depressing, uplifting and infuriating in equal measures. That's probably a good thing. I'll briefly discuss some of the sessions I attended and also what I think the organisers could do better next year. The Conference Kate Smurthwaite expertly chaired proceedings and kept the event running to time.  Not an easy task with several hundred …

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Porn and Social Media #SMCLondon


This was a talk I gave at Social Media Camp London in 2009. In it, I describe my experiences working with user-generated-content, pornography, and other adult material. This was one of my earliest BarCamp talks, and contains several ideas which now seem quite outdated.I was attempting to warn people about accepting UGC - not only the danger it posed to their sites, but also to their sanity.The tone is a bit too jokey in places, and some of my ideas around sex, gender, sexuality, and the like…

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