Have you ever wondered about your spouse, your child, or even your employees surfing the Internet and clicking porn on accident?Now a little device promises to find hidden porn on computers and get rid of it.
In a special report FOX23’s Abbie Alford finds out if the Porn Stick works.
What you surf for online is like a human fingerprint. It's saved on your computer, even if its images you don't mean to look at, which some people call "drive-by porn". You can try to delete your porn addiction from your wife, husband, mom or dad or if you want to take your porn addiction into the office so you can hide it from home. If your manager or anyone gets their hands on the Porn Stick, there's no hiding your online porn addiction or what some like to call "curiosity."
The Porn Stick may sound obscene but it can actually help you fight what’s obscene. The Porn Stick detector is a flash drive that scans your computer for any pornographic images on your Mac or P.C.
"Just because it has been deleted from the computer does not mean that it is gone from the computer,” says Geek Rescue Damon DoRemus.
Families like the Vavrinaks with four children believe you can’t be too careful when it comes to the Internet.
"You wouldn't let your child run into the street just because they normally watch for cars just like you wouldn't let your teenager on the Internet just because they are normally responsible," says Vavrinak.
Mom says she uses various parental controls to track down any hidden information. She and dad go as far as putting a timer on any online activity including certain hours of the day and for a limited time.
"We have to be careful with e-mail, chat, there are all sorts of ways that inappropriate information, images, languages comes into the house through the Internet," says Vavrinak.
There’s also someone else who’s buying devices like the Porn Stick.
"It's an angry spouse," says DoRemus.
Some have dubbed the Porn Stick “The Divorce Stick”.
"They want to get these pictures because of divorce proceedings or custody proceeding,” says Computer Data Litigation Services, LLC.
FOX23 News tested the Porn Stick at Geek rescue. It took about an hour to scan and out of nearly 12,000 pictures, 573 were flagged as suspect.
The Porn Stick doesn’t scan videos.
"It will tell you how many items it scanned and how many items are suspect so at first at first blush you are "oh My Gosh!" it's scary,” says DoRemus.
However, if you take a closer look at the highly suspected images it flags pie charts.
"How much skin is in a photo. The points between two objects. Obviously we can see the man's nipples," says DoRemus.
One picture shows a shirtless man, another picture flagged were of innocent family vacations with babies on the beach.
"It's like the old Supreme Court Justice stated, I don't know how to define porn but I know it when I see it. That is not porn," says DoRemus.
However, we did find two images that showed naked women.
"Here's the one photo and based off the file name I call that a drive-by download,” says DoRemus.
Another picture is flagged but is believed to be a surprise banner ad.
"You could click on link and boom there's a thumbnail, ‘whoa that is not what I wanted to see’ and it's still on the computer even though they got there on accident,” says DoRemus.
The maker of the Porn Stick, Paraben, says it can filter 99% of the non-porn images. However, Geek Rescue intentionally put two very graphic pictures on its computer. The Porn Stick can he adjusted based on the sensitivity, in other words how picky you want the program to be.
"Two pornographic photos there and it found one of them," says DoRemus.
So the Porn Stick is not flawless but it’s a tool that can be used to quickly let you know if there’s a problem.
"If you were making a determination as to whether someone was using a computer for lots of porn activity, you would see lots of it. You wouldn't see the occasional banner ad image or teaser image," says DoRemus. "Don't expect it to parent for you and don't expect it to solve your marriage for you."
The Vavrinak’s couldn’t agree more. For their family it’s all about setting limits and being involved.
"I think there is no substitute for vigilance because that is the only way to prevent the mess in the first place,” says Vavrinak.
Tulsa Police Cybercrimes detectives say they are familiar with the produce and it could be used to track potential predators.
However, they warn the Porn Stick doesn’t give a complete picture of a potential problem.
This also raises serious concerns for spouses who want to spy on online activity. Marriage therapists recommend advise you try to build or rebuild a trusting relationship before resorting to something like the Porn Stick.
