Fruity link too juicy for kids

After going to a website listed on a bag of mandarins, Levi Finer was directed to porn sites. Photo / Simon Baker

A healthy food website promoted to children on hundreds of bags of pre-packed mandarins has turned out to be a link to hardcore pornography.

Canterbury mother-of-four Lara Finer was horrified when her 8-year-old daughter Levi stumbled across a porn menu on Monday.

She had asked her mother's permission to look up the site, which was advertised on the label of a 1kg bag of Fresh Max mandarins bought in Rangiora on May 15.

Instead of taking her to Munch Island, where children can complete interactive puzzles and read about the merits of eating fruit, Levi was confronted by links such as Hot Gay Bareback Porn and OneFreePorn DVD.

A disbelieving Finer told the Herald on Sunday her daughter clicked on a link to a website offering hardcore gay porn. "A big, cartoon, purple monster completely directed at kids then popped up, asking her to press enter if she was over 18," says Lara. "Luckily my 17-year-old saw what was happening and clicked her straight out of there."

Thinking her daughter had made a typing mistake, Finer re-entered the address, only to get the same result.

She replaced .com with .co.nz and found what Levi was looking for - "a brilliant interactive site for children".

Finer said she phoned FreshMax thinking the .com address was a misprint. She said she was told the unregistered .com site had been hacked into. The company phoned back apologising for the glitch and promising to fix the problem.

Fresh Max managing director Peter Smith said old labels had been used on one batch of mandarins by mistake and the company regretted the mistake. He said the offensive site was shut down within 24 hours.

Smith blamed cyber squatters - hackers who set up porn sites with domain names a letter or two different from those popular with children.

Smith said the company became aware of the practice three months ago after a similar incident.

Since then it had bought eight variations on the address to stop it happening again.

He said the company had been trying to buy the .com domain since the first incident and agreed a deal last week.

Lee Chisholm, of Netsafe, said that extreme violence or sex- ually explicit material was often a couple of mouse clicks or a mis-spelt word away.

Early results from Netsafe research suggested 90 per cent of year 9 students had viewed porn online. It recommended software filters and close parental supervision.

A free download available at netsafe.co.nz offers young computer users an icon called Hector's Button. Used in many primary schools, it teaches children to click on a swimming dolphin on the com- puter screen if they come across anything that upsets them.

Chisholm said the screen would immediately be replaced with an underwater scene featuring Hector and a message tell- ing the child to get an adult.

Original here

Diet Coke to drop additive in DNA damage fear

Diet Coke: Linked to hyperactivity and DNA damage

Coca-Cola is phasing out a controversial additive that has been linked to damage to DNA and hyperactivity in children.

Sodium benzoate, also known as E211, is used to stop fizzy drinks going mouldy.

Coca-Cola said it had begun withdrawing the additive from Diet Coke in January in response to consumer demand for more natural products.

By the end of the year no can or bottle will contain E211.

The company plans to remove it from its other products as soon as possible, but said that at present it had not found a satisfactory alternative to replace the additive in some soft drinks with a higher juice content, including Fanta, Dr Pepper, Sprite and Oasis. The chemical is not used in regular Coke.

While sodium benzoate occurs naturally in some fruits, it is used in greater strengths by the soft drinks industry.

But research by Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology at Sheffield University, found that the additive could switch off parts of DNA, the genetic code in the cells of living creatures, that could be linked to cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson's disease.

However, the Government-backed Committee on Mutagenicity has dismissed the research.

It argues that while sodium benzoate has been shown to be harmful to yeast cells, human cells are stronger.

Research by Southampton University found that sodium benzoate was one of seven additives - the six others are food colours - hat can lead to hyperactivity in children.

The Food Standards Agency has called for the six colours to be withdrawn from products but not sodium benzoate.

The Daily Mail has campaigned for a ban on harmful additives.

A Coca-Cola spokesman said: "We are continuously listening to our consumers' thoughts about ingredients."

The firm stressed that E211 was approved as an additive by many bodies around the world including the European Food Standards Agency.

Original here

Diet Coke to drop additive in DNA damage fear

Diet Coke: Linked to hyperactivity and DNA damage

Coca-Cola is phasing out a controversial additive that has been linked to damage to DNA and hyperactivity in children.

Sodium benzoate, also known as E211, is used to stop fizzy drinks going mouldy.

Coca-Cola said it had begun withdrawing the additive from Diet Coke in January in response to consumer demand for more natural products.

By the end of the year no can or bottle will contain E211.

The company plans to remove it from its other products as soon as possible, but said that at present it had not found a satisfactory alternative to replace the additive in some soft drinks with a higher juice content, including Fanta, Dr Pepper, Sprite and Oasis. The chemical is not used in regular Coke.

While sodium benzoate occurs naturally in some fruits, it is used in greater strengths by the soft drinks industry.

But research by Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology at Sheffield University, found that the additive could switch off parts of DNA, the genetic code in the cells of living creatures, that could be linked to cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson's disease.

However, the Government-backed Committee on Mutagenicity has dismissed the research.

It argues that while sodium benzoate has been shown to be harmful to yeast cells, human cells are stronger.

Research by Southampton University found that sodium benzoate was one of seven additives - the six others are food colours - hat can lead to hyperactivity in children.

The Food Standards Agency has called for the six colours to be withdrawn from products but not sodium benzoate.

The Daily Mail has campaigned for a ban on harmful additives.

A Coca-Cola spokesman said: "We are continuously listening to our consumers' thoughts about ingredients."

The firm stressed that E211 was approved as an additive by many bodies around the world including the European Food Standards Agency.

Original here