Craigslist removes 'adult services' section

Craigslist appears to have surrendered in a legal fight over erotic ads posted on its website, shutting down its adult services section Saturday and replacing it with a black bar that simply says "censored."

The move comes just over a week after a group of state attorneys general said there weren't enough protections against blocking potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution. It's not clear if the closure is permanent, and it appears to only effect ads in the United States. Read more from the Associated Press. 

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Parents can hire a "hall monitor" for the web - be the China of their own home

"Fear can be good for business", reports the New York Times this morning in a story on how some parents are employing the use of subscription-based services that monitor their child's activity online.

In the dangerous wild west of the internet, there are a number of parents that are worried about the effect that some of its content may have on its children.

The article also details how the content filtering system of the service blocks out content based on certain keywords that are included in it - for example 'kill' or 'suicide'.

Of course, this can - and no doubt will - stop people from accessing perfectly innocent content. For example, when somebody doesn't see a post like 'the band killed last night'.

Imagine a day when children cannot lookup "To Kill a Mockingbird" without being red flagged by the China of their own homes. [Some content via NYT] 

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