Blogger/Blogspot as a Source of Internet Porn

I may have to switch my blog to another host. I used to like to browse neighboring blogs using the "Next Blog" button (upper left) but have found that this often leads to pornographic advertising. I was quite shocked, b/c there are supposed to be built-in protections against such things. I wrote to the company about 10 days ago, and just thought I would share my letter to them with you:

Aug. 22, 2007
I am writing about a number of violations to your Terms of Service regarding content, particularly the following:

* Pornography and Obscenity: Image and video content that contains nudity, sexually graphic material, or material that is otherwise deemed explicit by Google should be made private. Otherwise, we may put such content behind an interstitial.
* Commercial Pornography: We do not allow content that exists for the primary purpose of monetizing porn content or driving traffic to a monetized pornography site.

One of the features I USED TO enjoy about Blogger was the "Next Blog" button. I like to randomly troll the blogs in hopes of discovering a gem, as I hope other users might discover and enjoy mine.

I had not done this for some time and was in for a shock when I did. Yesterday and today when I did this, AT LEAST every 3rd (sometimes every other) page took me to pornographic photos (naked women, women with their crotches displayed to the camera, etc.). I respect your policy of freedom of speech (altho I don't totally agree with it in the area of porn), but why are these pages not preceded by an interstitial as mentioned above? What's more, MOST of them did not have the bar at top with the Flag Blog link. (Which means they also did not have the Next Blog option, so I just had to close down the page and could not continue exploring blogs).

I try to maintain a family-appropriate blog and cannot take the chance of my friends accidently opening such pages in proximity to my own. I will be checking back to see if their is any improvement, and if not, will move my blog elsewhere, and make known why I did so.

Here are the results of less than 1/2 hour of exploration using the Next Blog key: [Here I listed a number of URLs].

The following pornographic blogs had no Flag Blog option: [More URLs].

These were the only ones which gave me the Flag Blog option, and I did so, but I notify you of them just the same b/c Blogger has a reputation of ignoring flags: [2 more URLs]

I hope you will deal with this ASAP. It would be sad for a company like Blogger to become known as the "Best Source for Porn Blogs" in PC Magazine or Consumer Reports.