Should Search Engines censor certain keywords ?

The user AccuraCast at the Searchenginewatch.com forums started this thread which is also discussed at Threadwatch.com

It mainly deals with the question if Search engines like google and yahoo should censor their searches for topics like “suicide searches” and deliver some handpicked anti-suicide sites before the other search results.

Both sides are reprensented in the thread, the people who think its ok if a search engine would censor such requests mainly argue by pointing out the moral aspect while the nay-sayers fear this might cause a precedence for more severe censorship.

I for one would prefer unfiltered search results but allowing for instance anti-suicidal sites to deliver ads for free somewhere on the page. when someone uses the keyword suicide. This should satisfy both sides.

It should be clear that the only authority that decides if something has to be banned should be the law and not a search engine.

Technorati Tags: search, engine, censor, keyword, regulate