Porn filter for kids' mobiles sends images to parent

Innocent answers, or something more sinister? (Image:Tom Grill/Getty)
Parents who want to prevent their children from accessing pornographic material online normally only worry about traditional PCs, but what's the use of installing filtering software now that kids can get porn on their phones? Internet-enabled smartphones can access any pornographic website, but mobile filtering software is limited or non-existent. And with the rise of sexting, children can even share their own indecent images.

A recent patent application by electronics giant Samsung could have the answer. The patent describes a system for parents to monitor their offspring's mobile activity through their own handset. It scans incoming images - either from the web, or the phone's internal camera - for pornographic content by searching for large regions of exposed skin. If the image looks suspect, the child is locked out from accessing it and a copy is sent to their parent's phone, who can choose to allow access in the case of a false alarm, such as a cosmetics advert.

The patent also covers a number of modifications to the system, such as warning the child that a message will be sent to their parents if they don't stop looking at pornographic images, or extending the system to cover other devices like a PC, TV or other media player.

So can parents say goodbye to unwanted flesh on phones? Perhaps, but there's no reason to think the system will actually be implemented - companies register thousands of patents that never see the light of day. Even if Samsung does develop the software, they might find bare skin detection a tricky problem - the inventors of a recent Chatroulette filter had to resort to more advanced methods for keeping porn at bay.