Flickr Filtering

Yesterday Flickr introduced a new feature on their service called "Filtering." Filtering is a tool whereby users can designate their desired level of browsing (i.e. show me everything on Flickr un-filtered, or screen out material that has been tagged inappropriate by the user community). It also allows users the ability to designate in advance if they feel that things that they are uploading might be considered objectionable and allowing them to mark their images accordingly.

Photos uploaded are categorized as "safe" "moderate" or "restricted" and images are also classified as "photos" "art/illustration" or "screenshot".

The default that your account seems to be set at is with safe filtering turned on. So it is incumbent upon you to actually go to your settings and change them if you would like to not have images filtered out of your flickr search and other public areas. You can Flickr allowed it back into public search.

The old system was broken and so this new system is a step in the right direction. It is also likely that this new system was a necessary step for Flickr to have in place for their upcoming announced plans to introduce a version of Flickr for China. Flickr has had significant trouble over the course of the past few years with having their service universally announced plans to enter China it is likely that they would need some significant censorship system in place to keep the Chinese government happy with providing this kind of service there. My suspicion would be that the locked level of access for all Chinese will be with Flickr's "safe search" enabled.

Although this new filtering system by Flickr is a step in the right direction there are still some things that need work. To start with images are not the only thing that Flickr has censored with the NIPSA designation in the past. Groups or forums where potentially objectionable speech has taken place have also been marked NIPSA. There is still some confusion with regards to whether or not Flickr will continue censoring certain groups even if you choose to remove all filtering and designate that you are over 18.

For instance, as of the writing of this article, the group "uncensored." There is an imposter version of Del*te Me Uncensored which comes up but not the actual group.

There is also some concern that images which do not cut the mustard from a "safe" perspective on Flickr are also excluded from Flickr's popular "Explore" section of images. Recently many of the more popular users on Flickr Comments

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