WEBVTT - How Parental Controls Work

0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960
<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.840
<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:14.320
<v Speaker 1>tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello, everybody,

0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.040
<v Speaker 1>welcome to the podcast. My name is Chris Poulette. I'm

0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.080
<v Speaker 1>an editor at how Stuff Works, and today I have

0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:22.640
<v Speaker 1>sitting next to me Jonathan Strickland, one of our writers.

0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.040
<v Speaker 1>I suppose I should remove the tape. Yeah, well, I

0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.000
<v Speaker 1>was gonna make a great owl sound, but I don't

0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.640
<v Speaker 1>even actually have tape. Those That was radio magic or

0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.280
<v Speaker 1>podcast magic if you want podcast magic. Well, the reason

0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:41.479
<v Speaker 1>Jonathan sounded muffled up front was because we were talking

0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:47.199
<v Speaker 1>today about parental controls. Yes, although I'm not his parents. No, No,

0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.519
<v Speaker 1>let's clear that up right away. No, he is not

0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.480
<v Speaker 1>my long last father. My father is is is neither

0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.440
<v Speaker 1>long nor lost. He doesn't have to wear a big

0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.800
<v Speaker 1>black suit with a mask over his head and wields

0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:03.800
<v Speaker 1>a lightsaber not often, Okay, alright, So anyway, parental controls

0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:07.520
<v Speaker 1>are a subject of much debate simply because you know,

0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:09.160
<v Speaker 1>let's get down in the nitty gradie. It's a form

0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:14.720
<v Speaker 1>of censorship um about which many people, including Jonathan uh

0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.959
<v Speaker 1>and I'm probably not gonna sound like, you know, an

0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.360
<v Speaker 1>anti censorship person. But I also have two young daughters,

0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:24.000
<v Speaker 1>one of which is uh too young to do any

0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.759
<v Speaker 1>more than drool on the keyboard. But you know, recently

0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.280
<v Speaker 1>I have a kindergartener who's very computer savvy, and uh

0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.080
<v Speaker 1>started thinking about that the other day. Looked at the

0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.440
<v Speaker 1>mac os and there's a parental control suite built into

0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.080
<v Speaker 1>the operating system. Yes, just like there is for a

0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.360
<v Speaker 1>for Microsoft Vista, and uh, these are these are really

0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.560
<v Speaker 1>simple uh solutions. You know. It says turn off the

0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.680
<v Speaker 1>computer at a certain time on school nights, or only

0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.200
<v Speaker 1>allow them to use the computer for and then you

0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.800
<v Speaker 1>get it to set half an hour, whole hour, three hours,

0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.480
<v Speaker 1>and you get to pick So those kinds of things

0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.760
<v Speaker 1>really okay, not censorship, but you do have some control

0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:11.480
<v Speaker 1>over how much time your your child spends using the computer. Um,

0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.760
<v Speaker 1>and they're built right into the operating systems, which you know,

0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:19.400
<v Speaker 1>seem pretty cool. Now. They also go farther. You can

0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:24.240
<v Speaker 1>allow them to block uh dirty words in the nictionary

0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.440
<v Speaker 1>websites that might be offensive. Of course you're relying on

0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:33.000
<v Speaker 1>somebody else to set those sites up, you know, and say, well, um,

0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.959
<v Speaker 1>go ahead, and subscribe to these conventions, so you're sort

0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.639
<v Speaker 1>of trusting somebody else to block your your websites for you.

0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.119
<v Speaker 1>But um, you know that that's essentially how it works.

0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:44.880
<v Speaker 1>And I thought, well, you know, I would like to

0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.760
<v Speaker 1>limit my my kids time on the computer, so I

0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.800
<v Speaker 1>set up a basic set of parental controls. UM. So

0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.680
<v Speaker 1>I'm so far pretty happy with it. Cool cool, Yeah,

0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:57.280
<v Speaker 1>back when, uh, back when I was a kid, UM,

0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.440
<v Speaker 1>I was fortunate to be part of a LUs hold

0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.959
<v Speaker 1>that had computers pretty early on. So I mean even

0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.840
<v Speaker 1>when I was I guess about maybe twelve or thirteen,

0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:08.200
<v Speaker 1>we had a computer. This is kind of dating myself

0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.280
<v Speaker 1>a little bit, um, but we had, uh, the first

0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.359
<v Speaker 1>real computer computer that we had. I'm not going to

0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.160
<v Speaker 1>count the Texas instruments and please don't send me mad

0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.400
<v Speaker 1>email about that, but it was the Apple to E,

0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:22.960
<v Speaker 1>the Apple to me, and and we had an Apple

0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.600
<v Speaker 1>to E. We had several games on it, um, which

0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:31.200
<v Speaker 1>ostensibly were for me, but it was not unusual to

0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.920
<v Speaker 1>find that my father playing playing games and beating my

0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.920
<v Speaker 1>high scores. Um. But the the real reason we got

0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:44.800
<v Speaker 1>it was because my my father writes novels. So um,

0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.080
<v Speaker 1>our parental control system was dad coming into the office

0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:49.800
<v Speaker 1>and kicking me off the computer so that he could

0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:51.560
<v Speaker 1>write the next chapter of his book, which was you

0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:55.000
<v Speaker 1>know necessary because in order to supplement his income and

0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.160
<v Speaker 1>pay for my education and everything along those lines and

0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.880
<v Speaker 1>those of my sister, you know, he kind of had to.

0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.080
<v Speaker 1>So that was the old style of rental control where

0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.640
<v Speaker 1>it was very much hands on. But yeah, today, when

0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.920
<v Speaker 1>you've got kids who have their own computers now or

0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.680
<v Speaker 1>their own phone lines, I mean you've got a lot

0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:18.040
<v Speaker 1>more technology available, and some of it geared specifically towards children. Um,

0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:20.240
<v Speaker 1>you really have to take these other things into consideration.

0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.720
<v Speaker 1>It's not like, you know, we can only afford one

0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.960
<v Speaker 1>machine for the entire house now. Um, you know, the

0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:29.360
<v Speaker 1>prices have dropped so much that it's not a luxury

0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.279
<v Speaker 1>item anymore. Um, not for a lot of families anyways.

0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.680
<v Speaker 1>For some families, yes it still is. But for many families,

0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:38.360
<v Speaker 1>you know, it's not unusual to find three or four

0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.720
<v Speaker 1>computers in the household. So in that case, you can't

0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.159
<v Speaker 1>really just you know what, pop your head in every

0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.920
<v Speaker 1>five minutes and make sure that your kids not jumping

0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:50.640
<v Speaker 1>back online to to check out the internet. It's it's

0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:55.560
<v Speaker 1>not really practical. So and I can I can begrudgingly

0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.520
<v Speaker 1>agree that these are unnecessary. Uh has died to use

0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.560
<v Speaker 1>the word eve, But they are necessary um in many cases.

0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:09.480
<v Speaker 1>Uh yeah, well see they they actually hurt me a

0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.680
<v Speaker 1>little bit. Yeah, I'm sure it did. I'm sure it did.

0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.080
<v Speaker 1>Of course, parental controls don't go only, they don't stop

0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.680
<v Speaker 1>at the edge of your computer screen. There are also other,

0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.839
<v Speaker 1>many other screens that you'll find parental controls on, like

0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.320
<v Speaker 1>your TV, the beachip which is built in actually to

0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.960
<v Speaker 1>the TV itself, which is supposed to UM allow the

0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:34.120
<v Speaker 1>rating system to sort of help you control what can

0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:38.880
<v Speaker 1>and can't be seen. Um. But you know, you'll also

0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:41.480
<v Speaker 1>find it on a lot of set top boxes, like

0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.800
<v Speaker 1>a cable or satellite subscriber. You'll um in many cases

0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:51.000
<v Speaker 1>find that there's some way to knock out certain channels. Uh. Personally,

0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.839
<v Speaker 1>I like doing that with the shopping channels. So yeah,

0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.159
<v Speaker 1>I put a little password in there because I, you know,

0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.919
<v Speaker 1>I don't really want to watch them. Um. Well, and

0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:06.520
<v Speaker 1>and really technology has become so pervasive that it's it's

0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.720
<v Speaker 1>that's pretty much why you need these things. So kind

0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:10.839
<v Speaker 1>of let's let's go back to the computer one for

0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.200
<v Speaker 1>a bit, because I did write an article that that

0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:18.080
<v Speaker 1>that dovetail tails into this conversation. UM. It's not directly relevant,

0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:22.359
<v Speaker 1>but UM tangentially, I suppose, which was about Internet censorship

0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.480
<v Speaker 1>and UM. One of the big problems are that that

0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.920
<v Speaker 1>advocacy groups have, with privacy advocacy groups and and and

0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.240
<v Speaker 1>UM and free speech advocacy groups have with these kind

0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:41.760
<v Speaker 1>of UH solutions is that they're not the most elegant

0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:46.000
<v Speaker 1>or accurate UM ways to prevent people from seeing certain sites.

0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:50.680
<v Speaker 1>A lot of them depend on UM blacklists. So in

0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.719
<v Speaker 1>that case, like Chris was saying earlier, you're depending on

0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.960
<v Speaker 1>someone else saying this site is inappropriate for people to

0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:00.440
<v Speaker 1>look at at work or for children to have access

0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:04.560
<v Speaker 1>to UM. And so that's just a list of websites

0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.839
<v Speaker 1>that that someone else somewhere has determined are not appropriate

0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.240
<v Speaker 1>for you or your your kids to look at. But

0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.800
<v Speaker 1>in other cases they use keyword blocking, so it's kind

0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:16.840
<v Speaker 1>of like a search engine. You know. Search engines will

0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:21.800
<v Speaker 1>often UH scour a website and and categorize it by

0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:23.760
<v Speaker 1>the keywords that are on there. So when you do

0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.560
<v Speaker 1>a search for that keyword term, that's how they pop

0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.040
<v Speaker 1>up well, the same sort of thing for these parental controls.

0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.000
<v Speaker 1>They search for a database of keywords, and if those

0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:36.840
<v Speaker 1>keywords show up or phrases in some cases UM, that

0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.680
<v Speaker 1>site will automatically get blocked by the software. And the

0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.880
<v Speaker 1>problem is that it doesn't always block the appropriate site.

0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:50.040
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes it blocks stuff that really you should have access to. UM.

0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:52.160
<v Speaker 1>I have a I have friends who work at the

0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.240
<v Speaker 1>Center for Disease Control and some of them work in

0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.200
<v Speaker 1>uh in realms which require them to do research on

0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:05.280
<v Speaker 1>things like sexually transmitted diseases. But with certain software blocking

0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.920
<v Speaker 1>applications on their are website blocking applications, they can't go

0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:11.760
<v Speaker 1>to the sites they need to go to to do

0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.520
<v Speaker 1>research because they these keywords are popping up and that

0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.120
<v Speaker 1>the information is being blocked. So there are times where

0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.080
<v Speaker 1>this can really prevent you from from even doing your

0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:26.400
<v Speaker 1>job right. So that's kind of uh that's that's why

0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:28.200
<v Speaker 1>I look at this is sort of a downside in

0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.960
<v Speaker 1>many ways. Now, when you're talking about kids, it's a

0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.480
<v Speaker 1>different it's a different matter altogether. But the problem is

0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.840
<v Speaker 1>that these these parental controls aren't being applied just by

0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.360
<v Speaker 1>parents too kids. They're being applied by by companies to

0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:46.080
<v Speaker 1>employees or in some cases by governments to citizens. True enough,

0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.560
<v Speaker 1>there are instances even of I s p s Internet

0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:54.200
<v Speaker 1>service providers who are filtering content that comes into UH

0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.800
<v Speaker 1>into homes based on their content for you know, actually

0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.800
<v Speaker 1>have heard of politic coal content being censored. UM. And

0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:04.679
<v Speaker 1>we're just talking about in the United States. Of course,

0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.240
<v Speaker 1>there are other places like China who are famous where

0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:13.400
<v Speaker 1>you know, they're famous for blocking large, large volumes of

0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.720
<v Speaker 1>content on the Internet, and Cuba, which has its own

0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.600
<v Speaker 1>intranet which acts like an Internet but is really all

0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.559
<v Speaker 1>self contained. It doesn't really access anything to the outside,

0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:30.520
<v Speaker 1>so it really insulates the citizens. That's true. It's one

0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.720
<v Speaker 1>of those things to UH that people try to use

0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.600
<v Speaker 1>it for uh. You know, applications such as libraries, public

0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:39.960
<v Speaker 1>libraries where um you know, in this case, you wanted

0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.400
<v Speaker 1>to shut down at a certain point to uh to

0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.080
<v Speaker 1>log off all the computers in the library. But um,

0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.240
<v Speaker 1>you know, there is a big debate in many library

0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:54.160
<v Speaker 1>circles UM over whether or not it is a good

0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.320
<v Speaker 1>idea or a bad idea to UH to allow censorship.

0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.040
<v Speaker 1>Of course, you don't want uh. Your child is working

0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.760
<v Speaker 1>on a term paper, UM for a class, you don't

0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:07.960
<v Speaker 1>want somebody surfing the internet for for porn right next

0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.440
<v Speaker 1>to them. But at the same time, you know, is

0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.079
<v Speaker 1>it right? You know, one of the central tenants to

0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.880
<v Speaker 1>UH to the American Library Association's uh you know code

0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:22.680
<v Speaker 1>is that you're supposed to open these channels and and

0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.560
<v Speaker 1>fight censorship and all fronts. I know this because I'm

0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.240
<v Speaker 1>pursuing my degree in library and information sciences. So this

0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.640
<v Speaker 1>is a topic We've talked about a lot lately, but um,

0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:33.280
<v Speaker 1>it is. It is one of those things where they

0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.880
<v Speaker 1>you know, there are people fighting on both sides of it.

0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.360
<v Speaker 1>They see a reason for it. But you know, for

0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.400
<v Speaker 1>as far as the kids are concerned, but as far

0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.480
<v Speaker 1>as adults are concerned, do you apply the same rules

0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:47.320
<v Speaker 1>and in what way? Right? It's difficult? Yeah? Yeah. Do

0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:49.680
<v Speaker 1>you put a do you have a separate section in

0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.520
<v Speaker 1>the library? I mean, and if actually does that, does

0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.679
<v Speaker 1>that is that inappropriate in the way because it casts

0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:58.400
<v Speaker 1>a certain light on the people who go in there.

0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.440
<v Speaker 1>One of the one of the most popular ways of

0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:05.040
<v Speaker 1>handling it is to notify the library customer that they

0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.680
<v Speaker 1>are being they are not using a filtered internet connection,

0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.080
<v Speaker 1>and to offer an unfiltered internet connection to that person,

0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:14.120
<v Speaker 1>you know, as an alternative, it's like, well, here it is.

0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:16.880
<v Speaker 1>You know. Of course they also risk losing federal funding

0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:22.280
<v Speaker 1>for these projects because that's part of the legislation. And

0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:24.960
<v Speaker 1>and this is you know, it's just gonna get more complicated.

0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.840
<v Speaker 1>It's not gonna get uh easy. You know, it's not

0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:30.960
<v Speaker 1>gonna there there's no easy answers to this, and it's

0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.719
<v Speaker 1>not gonna you know, there's no solutions gonna pop up

0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.720
<v Speaker 1>in the next thirty seconds or something. I mean, you're

0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.000
<v Speaker 1>hearing the latest news I've heard about. This is for

0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.720
<v Speaker 1>airlines that are considering, you know that they're starting to

0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.600
<v Speaker 1>use um, I'm starting to WiFi enable right in flight

0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:52.040
<v Speaker 1>Internet that have WiFi enabled uh um in flight services,

0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:56.160
<v Speaker 1>so you pay to have access to the internet and

0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.880
<v Speaker 1>you can surf the web on your laptop in flight

0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:05.319
<v Speaker 1>for a fee. UM. And there are people they're both customers.

0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:09.760
<v Speaker 1>There are airline personnel like like flight attendants and even

0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:14.560
<v Speaker 1>pilots who are all concerned about whether or not they

0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.560
<v Speaker 1>should put in filters to block people from surfing for

0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:22.599
<v Speaker 1>porn on an airplane flight. Right, And I mean that

0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.840
<v Speaker 1>that's definitely one of those situations where you're you're thinking, really,

0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:31.760
<v Speaker 1>why would you want to You're sitting next to perfect strangers.

0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.360
<v Speaker 1>And I've heard arguments about this. I've heard arguments that say, well,

0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.680
<v Speaker 1>why would you look on someone else's screen? Well, it's

0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.240
<v Speaker 1>in your field of vision. I mean, you know, I

0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.560
<v Speaker 1>don't know about you, but my my vision does extend

0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.960
<v Speaker 1>beyond directly straight in front of me, and the way

0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.280
<v Speaker 1>the way you're sitting in an airplane. Let mean, if

0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.079
<v Speaker 1>you're in coach, I mean you know, you're your elbows

0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:56.640
<v Speaker 1>are and sticking in the ribs of the person next

0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:58.960
<v Speaker 1>to you. There's not a whole lot of space there. Well,

0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.240
<v Speaker 1>if you think about it. The one of the biggest

0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:06.000
<v Speaker 1>arguments that I've heard for people who do not want

0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.360
<v Speaker 1>airlines to allow cell phone use is they don't want

0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:12.360
<v Speaker 1>to hear everybody else talking. No, I don't having their

0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.679
<v Speaker 1>personal phone conversations. Well, why would you want to? You know,

0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.040
<v Speaker 1>I'll give that some credit. You know, you're a captive

0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.920
<v Speaker 1>audience for your four hour flight. You have to sit

0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.480
<v Speaker 1>next to this person in very close proximity. If you

0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:27.200
<v Speaker 1>don't want to flight, you can't switch seats or anything like. Yeah, So,

0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.920
<v Speaker 1>I mean I don't really want to watch somebody sir,

0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.320
<v Speaker 1>for porn, you know, sitting right next to them and

0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.719
<v Speaker 1>coach and I want to but no, particularly not when

0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.680
<v Speaker 1>you're a captive audience strapped into a seat at thirty

0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:43.679
<v Speaker 1>thou feet that that definitely does not have appeal to me.

0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.840
<v Speaker 1>And I've heard suggestions, perhaps tongue in cheek for solutions

0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:49.760
<v Speaker 1>like having the curtained off area in the back of

0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.640
<v Speaker 1>the plane so you can just have the porn section.

0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:56.000
<v Speaker 1>And just do we really need to turn airplanes into

0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.720
<v Speaker 1>that kind of environment. I mean, we used to have

0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.480
<v Speaker 1>the smoking sections, which, depending on your point of view,

0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.120
<v Speaker 1>we're bad enough. From my own point of view, definitely

0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.280
<v Speaker 1>bad enough, so I'm glad those are gone. But I mean,

0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.280
<v Speaker 1>it's just such a kin of worms um and and

0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.120
<v Speaker 1>even though I am vehemently anti censorship, I guess it's

0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:17.200
<v Speaker 1>one of those things where it's okay as long as

0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.880
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't impact me, because I can I can definitely

0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:22.760
<v Speaker 1>say that if I were sitting next to someone and

0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:26.280
<v Speaker 1>they were looking at inappropriate material, however you may define that,

0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:30.280
<v Speaker 1>it would definitely make me uncomfortable. And I mean it

0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.440
<v Speaker 1>just seems wildly inappropriate. You you you would hope people

0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:37.800
<v Speaker 1>would use their individual judgment and come to the conclusion of, hey,

0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.520
<v Speaker 1>this is something I should only look at in the

0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:45.600
<v Speaker 1>privacy of my own home, bathroom, closet, whatever, um, and

0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:50.520
<v Speaker 1>not on a seven thirty seven going on a transatlantic flight.

0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.680
<v Speaker 1>You know. But you can't necessarily trust that people will

0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.200
<v Speaker 1>do that. So that's where the kind of worms comes in.

0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:58.920
<v Speaker 1>And that's what I think I'm going to have to

0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:02.800
<v Speaker 1>do eventually with my kids. Um. You know, they're, at

0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.280
<v Speaker 1>least as far as I can tell, um, you know,

0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.840
<v Speaker 1>pretty smart kids, and they're gonna have to you know,

0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.320
<v Speaker 1>they're gonna be able to get around a lot of

0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.680
<v Speaker 1>the paroun controls I could set up for them. You know,

0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.840
<v Speaker 1>they'll find some way to do it, because you know

0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.560
<v Speaker 1>that's the kids are smart and uh you know, and

0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:23.520
<v Speaker 1>they soak up information so quickly, see as fast as

0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:25.600
<v Speaker 1>we come put up barriers that are gonna know ways

0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:29.240
<v Speaker 1>around them. It's kind of it's it's both admirable and scary.

0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.520
<v Speaker 1>Yes it is. And you know, I think I think

0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:34.280
<v Speaker 1>you're right. I think what it comes down to is

0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:36.880
<v Speaker 1>educating people and saying, look, you know this isn't appropriate

0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:38.920
<v Speaker 1>at this time. You don't want to do this in

0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.720
<v Speaker 1>front of all these people. You don't want to expose

0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:43.520
<v Speaker 1>people to things that you wouldn't want to be exposed to,

0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:45.960
<v Speaker 1>and here's why. And you have to uh to get

0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.160
<v Speaker 1>in there and explain what it is, what's going on,

0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.440
<v Speaker 1>and say, you know, you're gonna have to use your judgment. Yeah,

0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:56.680
<v Speaker 1>so we're getting back to the old parental control. Exactly interesting, right,

0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.680
<v Speaker 1>You can't just solely depend upon technology. Although technology can

0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.360
<v Speaker 1>certainly help you out, you can't. You can't depend on

0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:08.800
<v Speaker 1>that as the the cure all solution. Um. Yeah, and

0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:10.320
<v Speaker 1>you've got to hope that we don't have too many

0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:12.880
<v Speaker 1>Andy Kaufman's out there, because those are the exactly the

0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:14.680
<v Speaker 1>kind of people who would want to push your buttons

0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:16.640
<v Speaker 1>and do what you're not supposed to do in public

0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:19.480
<v Speaker 1>just to see how people react. And there's always going

0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.040
<v Speaker 1>to be those people, but hopefully they'll be in the minority. Well.

0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.840
<v Speaker 1>I guess that about wraps up this discussion. If you

0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.240
<v Speaker 1>want to learn more, you can read all about internet

0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.280
<v Speaker 1>censorship on how stuff Works dot Com right now, and

0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:35.040
<v Speaker 1>we'll talk to you again soon for more on this

0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.760
<v Speaker 1>and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works

0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.920
<v Speaker 1>dot Com? Let us know what you think, Send an

0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:47.800
<v Speaker 1>email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought

0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.040
<v Speaker 1>to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,

0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:51.680
<v Speaker 1>Are you