iParent: Profanity Filter

I’m always surprised by people who swear conversationally. I’m sympathetic to a broken dish or hammer to the thumb, but I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t swear unless you’re on BBC. Or Mel Brooks.

I’m even more surprised when people swear in print. Not that we don’t all have our moments of weakness, but I’ve never sworn online. Swearing lives in the moment, and I’ve never reached a point in writing where I couldn’t think of a better noun or adjective. Where only a four-letter word could best capture the experience.

Plus, my grandma reads this stuff!

A lot of bloggers swear. And often. It’s not that I’m a prude, not that I can’t handle or get over it; it’s just that, given the choice, I’d rather avoid the more colorful side of language. I don’t need that language in my mind, or in my heart. I’d rather my son avoid it, too. Which is something of a moot point given that he’s three. But still.

We have spam filters for offensive e-mails, and firewalls for offensive everything else, but what about text?

Enter the Profanity Filter, for Firefox! Using a pre-configured list, Profanity Filter replaces foul language with asterisks, keeping your eyeballs minty-fresh. And because language is alive and ever-changing, you can update the list with the latest and creative ways to cause women of high-society to drop their monocles in shock.

Profanity Filter requires the Greasemonkey Firefox extension. Add-on. Whatever.

(Thanks, Lifehacker!)

2 Responses

  1. How About Two?
    How About Two? at | | Reply

    I’m a pretty prolific swearer in real life, but in my blog I am rather self-censoring and curse only to make an emphatic point. And I almost never use the f-word in my blog.

    That being said, I am completely against firefox (which I use) having a curse word censor on it.

    I know what some of you are saying, ‘What about the kids?’

    To that, I reply, ‘Be a parent.’

    It is not technology’s responsibility to safeguard you child from foul language, just like it is not television’s job to raise your child.

    Or you child’s school teacher, for that matter.

    You need to be a responsible parent and not allow them to watch/read/listen to/surf whatever they want. And if that means you have to miss some of your favorite tv/books/music/websites, well, that’s one of the prices of parenthood. And a cheap one at that.

    Okay. That’s all.

  2. Asfand Yar Qazi
    Asfand Yar Qazi at | | Reply

    And what about adults?

    Swearing is an indication of a lack of discipline in the mind, a mind that is prone to impulsive behaviour, and thus can’t be trusted as much as a more disciplined mind in the heat of the moment. I’d much rather be around people who don’t swear as a result.

    The same goes for web pages.

    In addition to that, the more we are exposed to swearing, the more we are trained to become impulsive – after working for over a year in an office where swearing is heard frequently, I now find myself sometimes swearing when I get angry – and I also get angrier more often, having lost some of my self control.

    It’d be better if people were trained not to swear, not because “it’s bad”, but merely because it’s in our self interests.

    This filter will serve just that purpose!

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