Should the Dictionary Have a "Family Filter?"
So I was just casually looking up a word starting with the letter "b" in the Span¡shD!ct Dictionary. What immediately caught my attention was the word "B!tch" (I'm not quite sure what words are allowed in the forum, so an admin may change that to whatever they wish). Partly because I am an adolescent teen male, but mostly for my concern for other people, I looked up a few other "naughty words," if you will, to see if they were in the dictionary... they were.
Now I realize that one would hear these words one time or another, and many people desire them to be translated, but what about the children of this magnificent website? What about the people that may find offense to seeing these words when they type something remotely close in the dictionary bar? Should we/they suffer?
This is why I am proposing a "Family Filter," if there is not one already. I think, perhaps, that this should hide sexual and profane words and content from the website. What do you think?
11 Answers
Heavens no, it's a dictionary. The very suggestion is appalling and sends a shiver down to my very core. Do you really think a family filter would be something that the site could just "turn on" without a great expenditure of money? They would have to log every word that you consider bad and add it to the filter.... which they would have to hire programmers to build and implement thereby providing the possibility of breaking what is probably the best Spanish dictionary that I have ever come across. There is nothing wrong with the dictionary. Besides, my mother always taught me that there are no bad words, there are only people that use words in a bad way. As long as you aren't using the words to hurt people then there is no reason to shield yourself from them.
I can see where you're coming from, but I'd like to echo what others have pointed out and respectfully disagree.In my view, there are a handful of problems with what you're proposing.
How do we define "offensive" or "obscene?" Even the Supreme Court didn't manage to get a good answer for this one.
If we manage to draw some borders around offensive content, will those borders stay the same over time? Who determines what's eliminated next?
"Offensiveness," "immorality," "inappropriateness," etc.. are heavily influenced by both time and culture. Since this is a bilingual, multicultural space, eliminating certain terms based on (what would appear to be) a largely anglo understanding of "offensive" is, I think, dangerous.
This is a great space precisely because it encourages language and cultural learning. The fact is that the words and phrases you and others might want to remove are part of the languages being learned here. The way I see it, there's nothing wrong with having them available.
And finally.. a "family filter" is a bit of a redundancy, isn't it? If young, impressionable people who are too young to understand the contexts of potentially offensive content are using this site, shouldn't they have appropriate adult guidance while they do so? Shouldn't their family be their "filter" to begin with?
At any rate, AWSM, if you really are an "adolescent teen male" as you say, it seems like you're already smart enough to know how to process unfamiliar or uncomfortable content. I think we can trust others to be similarly sophisticated.
No, no, no, no, no. You can't be serious. It's a dictionary. I'd rather have my kid looking up "naughty words" on this site than looking for all of the other garbage that is available on the internet.
By the way, you don't sound very adolescent.
I think all content should be allowed.
My spanish dictionary here at home has a fair few words of the type to which you're referring - and I don't see how that could be filtered unless I start getting a permanent marker out and defacing it!
My own view is that a word is just a word and although some people might feel offended by one, it can't actually harm anybody, unlike actions, or indeed some images which can stay with you forever.
I think there's a lot more on the internet to be concerned about than some 'naughty' words in a dictionary.
Just my opinion. Oh, and of course b!tch isn't primarily a naughty word anyway...
Peace.
Hm, yes, an excellent suggestion in my opinion. I mean, why shouldn't a person be able to turn on a "Family Filter" to block unwanted content? It works for other sites as well. I'm sure a filter would be much appreciated.
Surely we are all adult enough to use our own tried and tested bult-in filters, there has not been anything I have read which I have found offensive or that which I have not wanted to read ." Honi soit qui mal y pense" 
Oh, and of course b!tch isn't primarily a naughty word anyway
Exactly the point I would make. It all depends on context and culture, especially since the thresholds for offending and being offended are all over the map these days. So should there be a filter? My vote: **** no.
Should the Dictionary Have a "Family Filter?"
No.
A family filter would be a "right b!itch" to administer.
When I entered the above but with an "i" and not the "!" I got the following message at the top of the screen,
Your post has been detected as having possible profane language. Please know that this goes against the rules of SpanishDict as a family-friendy site, and that you are advised to edit your post.
It would seem we have filters already.
So I was just casually looking up a word starting with the letter "b" in the Span¡shD!ct Dictionary. What immediately caught my attention was the word "B!tch" (I'm not quite sure what words are allowed in the forum, so an admin may change that to whatever they wish). Partly because I am an adolescent teen male, but mostly for my concern for other people, I looked up a few other "naughty words," if you will, to see if they were in the dictionary... they were.
Rather than us installing a "family filter", I propose that you stop looking up naughty words in our dictionary if you don't wish to see them!
