Politech mailing list archives
FC: Pressure to rate the Net mounts, from NYT/CyberTimes
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 09:26:39 -0600
[I rather think the Starr Report should be rated indecent, and thus off-limits to library patrons. And cnn.com reports of atrocities in East Timor? Definitely violent and off-limits for teenagers. Oh, wait, a news exemption to the ratings? I'm sure Playboy will love that. Sigh. --Declan]
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 11:30:30 -0400 To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com> From: Barry Steinhardt <Barrys () aclu org> Subject: Cybertimes on International Ratings Declan, The International movement to rate the net grows. Attached is a piece from Cyber Times. Barry http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/cyber/articles/25ratings.html September 25, 1999 Internet Rating System Plans to Globalize By PAMELA MENDELS In response to the increasing globalization of the Internet, a content rating and filtering system that was
originally
developed primarily for the United States will be expanded to encompass a more global audience. Sometime next year, the Internet Content Rating Association is scheduled to launch a re-vamped version of a major ratings and filtering system called RSACi in the hope that it can appeal to parents and Web publishers worldwide. "RSACi was an American response to an American concern," said Stephen C. Balkam, executive director of the Internet Content Rating Association, a four-month old
organization
that has offices in the United States and Britain. "We need to internationalize the system and governing structure." RSACi was launched in 1996 largely in response to
federal
government attempts in the United States to regulate indecent content online. The system was an offshoot
of an [...]
The idea behind a re-vamped RSACi is to develop a rating system that considers the sensibilities of parents
around
the world, not just American parents, as the Internet begins to attract a bigger global audience. For example, Balkam said that Europeans as a whole have less concern about online nudity and more concern about violence than their American counterparts. In addition, he said, Europeans harbor a stronger consumer resistance to the idea of personal information being bought or sold, and so might want ratings to reflect Web sites' privacy protections for children. The possibility of an international rating system has been in the spotlight lately, because of an ambitious but controversial proposal released at a conference in
Munich
earlier this month. The document, drawn up by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a German policy research group, recommends a number of ways in which the Internet industry could police itself to help parents prevent their children from accessing
potentially
harmful material online. Among them is the creation of a new international system whereby Web publishers would rate their own content and parents could then choose either to block or allow access to material based on how the ratings mesh with their values.
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- FC: Pressure to rate the Net mounts, from NYT/CyberTimes Declan McCullagh (Sep 27)