Monitor for Offensive User-Uploaded Pictures

best way to go about it?

[FourDegreez]

If you allow users to upload pictures, how do you best protect against offensive material being displayed? Human review of all pictures is not always a realistic option. So what are the best ways to go about this?

[rocknbil]

Sorry, but it's really the *only* option. Nothing I know of automatically detects image content.

To reduce the amount of work, you could have your programming notify by email when an new image is uploaded, at least then you can target the location and know when to look.

[cmendla]

I have heard of apps that can look for percentages of skin and other things and flag some porno stuff.

You might also see if you can check for 'naughty words' in the file names.

I have been seeing a lot of sites with "report this post" links. In other words you have your communitiy do some of your policing.

You might want to check with a lawyer (they are easily found, turn rocks over and eventually one will slither out or follow an ambulance).. Anyway, you might need to make sure that you are covered for liability. eg. None of my sites which are general travel sites, computer stuff etc do any kind of age verification. Here's a nightmare.. A poster uploads underage p*rn.. Now a 15 year old kid logs onto your site and sees it. Mommie calls the feds to have you arrested and then Dewey Cheetumn and Howe to sue your pants off. You are in criminal trouble and are facing a multi million dollar contingincy fee based lawsuit.. Gotta have the right policiies, checks and procedures in place.

cg

[netchicken1]

Easiest is to get your viewers to do it for you with a "Report this image" button.

[cmendla]

I did some checking on automatic image filtering.. There is software that can do what you want but I'm not sure of the reliability, cost or other factors.

try doing a google search for
automatic image content analysis porn

There is some info there on ways to check. However, that only does the porn part.. Some bozo could still upload hate stuff or other content that would be offensive..

[neemtree]

You could implement a workflow, where all content/image content needs to be moderator approved prior to publishing.

[adwatson]

I've heard that much of the automated software is easily fooled - including banning pictures of things like sand dunes (presumable because of the flesh tones and curves)... So I agree, human review of some sort is probably the only option.

[Rugles]

Thanks for starting this thread. We just launched a new site and for the first time we are allowing users to upload images on a site we own.

It never occured to me that this could be abused.

Back to the drawing board.

[rocknbil]

Not to drive the thread off-topic, but there are other ways this can be abused, as in uploading an executable virus with a .jpg extension. This is why I like to use ImageMagick for this, it actually reads the image, not just the extension, and you can reject it if it is not a valid image type.