Information about inappropriate ads sometimes appearing on LiveCam web page

There has been a spirited discussion about the appearance of some advertisements on the LiveCam web page - some or many of these ads could be considered to be highly inappropriate for children, young adults or any adult, depending on their points of view (the adults, not the children and under-18s).  Last night I spent several hours displaying a test image on the LiveCam site and then doing a detailed analysis of the web streams that I received when viewing the test image.  Following are the results.

Technical environment for testing
I tested the LiveCam page on WindowsXP, Windows Vista, Windows7, OSX 10.6.4, Ubuntu 10, OpenSuSe, Solaris 10 and OpenVMS.  I used Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Opera 10, Safari 5, Firefox 3.6.6 and Chrome 5.

I tested the site with browsers in their default settings, then using private or incognito mode (this doesn't store any web history in browser caches), then using NoScript (a Java/flash/ad blocker).  I used Wireshark to capture the details of the whole TCP/UDP stream going to the machines receiving the LiveCam stream and then disassembled the stream for all requests and communication.  I further captured and dumped the web page HTTP contents as they changed dynamically.

Results explanation
The page you see when viewing LiveCam is complex and composed of over thirty separate elements, including advertising from at least 18 different sources (!!).  The Ustream controlled component is ONLY the image you see that contains what I broadcast - this is delivered to your browser using Adobe Flash.

All other advertising on the page is not delivered via Ustream, it is delivered through multiple advertising services and they base their ads on many complex factors, including your browser location, operating system, browser type, browser history, readable cookies on your PC (in other words, things left behind by other sites you have visited, or someone using your PC/browser has visited), and other components about you that can be identified from the web - and there are lots!!


The Ustream ads appear to come from Google and are content-restricted, I was unable to display any ad within the Ustream Flash screen that contained anything inappropriate, although I received plenty that was boring or related to the US, not Australia.  What is displayed on the remainder of the page, that is NOT in the Ustream box containing the LiveCam streaming, is not under control of Ustream - it is under YOUR control.

Recommendations

1. If children are using the computer, ensure that they are supervised at all times.  This is not my recommendation, it comes from the Police, the Commonwealth Government and the Child Protection Agencies.  If you don't want to, or you think that is an imposition, please don't complain about what may be displayed on a site as it is under your control.
2. Use an ad/script blocker in your browser, something similar to AdBlock or NoScript.  It will stop the display of all ads, block malicious JavaScript and other components and generally improve the security of your PC.  It requires configuration and is fiddly to start, but it is worth doing.  If you can't/won't supervise your children or if you just don't want to see ads, do this at least.

In summary, everything on the LiveCam page is under your control and, apart from the ads in the actual video stream of LiveCam, all the ads that appear are based on your browser/PC history and whatever the advertisers can glean about you from the web - it may be inaccurate, but that is how they work.

If you receive something inappropriate in the LiveCam Flash window, please photograph it or do a screen copy and send it to me ASAP so that I may take it up with Ustream.  I cannot, however, stop the boring ads or ads for US TV shows and/or services - sorry :)