Google Data

One of the coolest things about social networking is that it lets all different kinds of people come together and express their unique personalities and interests. Most of the time this is positive, helping people around the world make new friends and learn new things. However, any time lots of different people interact, there are bound to be some differences in opinion as to what kinds of things are appropriate. With these concerns in mind, we've decided to introduce a new feature on orkut: the "Safety Filter."

Here's a quick overview of how it works:

The new "Safety Filter" automatically screens for content that may not violate our Community Standards, but that some of you have let us know that you'd rather not see. With the "Safety Filter" on, whenever you come across a page with photos or text that we think you might be bothered by (such as sexually suggestive phrases or images) , you'll receive a warning and the mature content will be replaced by special icons. No filter is 100% accurate, so if you see a page that you think should be blocked, just flag it as always and let us know.

Right now, we're in the process of automatically turning the Safety Filter on for all of you who use orkut in India. We'll be rolling it out to the rest of world in the next few weeks. If you decide that you'd like to turn the Safety Filter off, just go to your "Settings" page. Regardless of whether you choose to use the new Safety Filter or not, orkut's tough policies against explicit content will still be in place.

We hope this new update helps to make orkut an even more fun and safe place for all of you.

Have an opinion on this new feature? Send us an and let us know! We always love to hear your thoughts.

Posted by Ranveer Kunal, Software Engineer.

Posted by Keyla Ribeiro, orkut Operations Team

We all love orkut, but no one likes to come accross profiles or communities of questionable content. It's important to keep in mind that orkut is a place for people to communicate freely about all sorts of topics -- but that doesn't mean anything can be posted on the site. Here are some guidelines to remind you what sorts of things will be removed when we become aware of their existence:

• Hate comments about race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, veteran status and sexual orientation or gender identity; we also do not tolerate direct threats of violence towards individuals.
• Content with child porn, pedophilia and frontal nudity.
• Profiles and communities that promote or encourage illegal and dangerous activities that could result in physical harm to the person committing the act or those around him/her.
• Defamatory profiles that imitate a real person; we'll remove them if we receive a full and complete report from the person being impersonated.

To file a report on any profile or community you believe may fall into any of the categories listed above, simply visit the profile or community in question and click the “report abuse” link. On profiles, this link will appear once you hover over the "more" link. We are counting on you to help us keep orkut nice and clean.

Stay beautiful!