Yahoo! Search Engine Crashes Image of Black Teens

By Makebra M. AndersonNNPA National Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Abby Andrews, a graphics designer in the San Francisco area, was recently developing a logo for the African-American Anti-Smoking Network. She searched her enormous personal collection of books and magazines in an effort to find the right images that captured the quintessence of Black youth. But after nothing caught Andrews’ eye, she decided to take a trip into cyberspace. “I was trying to give them several different styles that speak to Black youth,” she recalls. “I wanted to make it hip and young, but not too childish. So I decided to type ‘black teens’ into Yahoo! and over 300 porno sites came up. I was shocked!” And there was plenty to shock her, as obscene and sexually explicit images took over her computer screen. “I scrolled through pages and pages and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Lewd images of naked African-American women and teenagers,” she remembers. “A heat wave came over my face with shame. I felt like I was standing in the middle of the street with no clothes on. I was so embarrassed.” Convinced that she had made a mistake, Andrews typed “black teens” into two other popular search portals – one had thousands of links to pornographic Web sites and other one didn’t. After steadying herself, Andrews searched entries for “white teens.” This time, her screen became populated with images from pop-culture, news and fashion Web sites. There were very few pornographic links. That double-standard angered Andrews even more. “It doesn’t seem normal to me that when I type in ‘white teens,’ those types [pornographic] of sites don’t come up. It’s very suspect,” she said. “I thought this is either a conspiracy or they [Yahoo!] are just sloppy with the way they categorize things.” Andrews became so outraged that she sent out e-mails to everyone she could think of, including journalists and civil rights activists. One of them was forwarded to the NNPA News Service. The number of pornographic sites viewed depends on whether the filters on your computer are turned on or off. Filter settings can be found under the preferences option on the home page of all Internet search engines and allows the user to block adult content and x-rated images. When searching “black teens” on Yahoo!, with the filter off, there were approximately 228,000 results. Of those, approximately 99 percent were pornographic sites. Of the 26,800 results for “white teens,” only 25 percent of the content was pornographic. AltaVista, a subsidiary of Yahoo!, was even worse. When searching “black teens” and “white teens, with the filter off, 99 percent of approximately 227,000 results for Blacks were pornographic, while 10 percent of approximately 27,100 results for Whites were pornographic. ”Yahoo! search ranks results utilizing an algorithm (computational formula) that assesses how relevant a Web site is to a particular query by analyzing the Web page text, title and description accuracy as well as its source, associated links, and other unique document characteristics. The results that are presented are a reflection of what is on the Web,” Stephanie Ichinose, a Yahoo! public relations manager, says. In 2003, Yahoo! purchased Web search software firm Inktomi for $235 million. Shortly thereafter, they introduced Yahoo! Search. According to the company, “Yahoo! Search touts a cleaner, easier-to-use interface and faster ways to find relevant information.” Company officials refuse to take total responsibility for what shows up on the screen. “From time to time, various Web sites will make their site seem more important by manipulating the algorithms and descriptions,” Ichinose says. “There are billions of Web pages out there. We try our best to shift through them all.” To some critics, Yahoo! is tryingg to shift blame. “I don’t care about their mathematical algorithms. Maybe they need to change their algorithms,” Andrews says. “They may not want to spend the money to fix the problem, but they sure need to.” According to Martin Rinard, a computer language engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), all search engines are based on mathematical algorithms. Once the company develops a specific algorithm, the computer looks for content based on that formula. “I know at one point Yahoo! and AltaVista were using much less sophisticated search engine technology. I know Yahoo! is constantly working on their algorithms,” explains Rinard. “When Google first came out, they were much better than any other search engine because they determined everything by links. They figured if a lot of sites linked to one particular site it must be a good site. That’s how they developed their algorithm.” When searching on Google, returns for Black and White teens were not markedly different. Of approximately 608,000 results for “black teens,” approximately 30 percent of the content was pornographic. Of the 83,800 results for “white teens,” approximately 20 percent was pornographic, a difference of only 10 percent. All three search engines returned sexual content when searching “Asian teens,” but none of them returned adult Web sites when searching “Hispanic teens”. Yahoo! attracts more than 220 million visitors each month, making them one of the most popular Internet portals. Most of its revenue is derived from banner advertising sales and sponsorship ads. The company also sells search engine result listings to advertisers. ”Yahoo! strives to promote inclusiveness and a wide range of free expression on the Internet and in the experience we provide. When content is in violation of our Terms of Service Yahoo! will evaluate and take the appropriate action,” Ichinose says. Andrews, who lives in Concord, Calif., 33 miles east of San Francisco, says that isn’t enough. “Just like there are regulations on nudity on television, I think there should be the same regulations on the Internet,” she says. “It’s not fair that my 7-year-old daughter, who is very Internet savvy, could see something like this when searching something as basic as ‘black teens’. Julia Hare, an educational psychologist and co-founder of The Black Think Tank in San Francisco, says that explicit images of young women represent an extension of the exploitation that has occurred in the media for years. “The Internet is the new way of exploiting Black women and degrading us. At first they portrayed us as Aunt Jemima’s and nannies – now they portray us as these nymphomaniac, sex-craved people,” Hare says. “The Internet is a reflection of life. Black exploitation still makes millions of dollars as it did in the 60s.” She adds, “They’re [the White media] determined to keep us down because they know we aren’t going to speak out and fight for our own liberation. We need to stand up. Get our own search engine, stop using Yahoo!, Google and any other Internet site until they change the way they categorize Black teens in their portal.” Andrews agrees. “When I found what I found, it was like the culmination of what White America thinks of us,” she says. “I would love to boycott Yahoo! and make them an example, since they are so overt about providing one-sided information. I think Yahoo! is passing the buck and refusing to take responsibility. As long as they are making money, they don’t care.”