I{: Salon article on PICS

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 12:48:31 -0400
From: Tim Finin <finin () cs umbc edu>


Salon Magazine has an article on internet ratings systems and PICS at
<http://www.salonmagazine.com/july97/21st/21st.html>.  Here is the initial
part.  Tim



--


RATINGS TODAY, CENSORSHIP TOMORROW 
                                                                     
The Net industry is rushing to embrace ratings systems for the Web. The
technology will help parents keep their kids away from porn. It can also
help anyone censor anything. 
  
BY JOSEPH D. LASICA 


A few years from now, when we look back at what crippled the Internet
as a global forum for the free exchange of information, at least we'll know
it was done with the best of intentions. 


    Who, after all, could oppose Internet ratings if they create a
    "family-friendly" online world? 


And so, to make the Net safer for kids and to avert government
regulation, the Internet brain trust has banded together to push rating,
filtering and labeling technology -- a private-sector techno-fix to cleaning
up the Net. President Clinton has signed on and has used his bully pulpit
to jawbone companies that were wavering on the issue. And the news
media have covered the president's initiative with the gusto of a pep
rally. 


With all this firepower behind them, ratings are coming to a Web site
near you -- in fact, to all Web sites, if proponents have their way. And a
panoply of would-be censors -- from foreign despots to home-grown
zealots and pandering politicians -- couldn't be happier. 


    "What's happening now is a move toward the privatizing of censorship,"
    says David Sobel, legal counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information
    Center (EPIC). "It's likely to destroy the Internet as it's existed up
till
    now." 


...