FC: Fans of protect-the-children web rating systems haven't given up

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Stephen Balkam of ICRA used to be Stephen Balkam of RSAC. And this
system suffers from some of the same problems, including the need to
scaremonger ("anonymity of the Internet") in press releases to drum up
support, the distasteful way its backers must kowtow to the whims of
conservative politicians, and the unfortunate-for-ICRA fact that most
web sites simply won't participate. --Declan]

*******

From: David Goldstein <goldstein_david () yahoo com au>
Subject: ICRA Launches New System to Make the Internet Safer for Children
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 05:58:02 +1100 (EST)

Hi all

ICRA, the Internet Content Rating Association, has just announced the
launch of their content labelling scheme.

If you are interested, read on, or see
http://www.icra.org/press/releases.html for links to US, German,
Spanish or French versions.

Cheers
David

ICRA Launches New System to Make the Internet Safer for Children

ICRA news release - 13 December

http://www.icra.org/press/en_p12.html

A significant new development in the effort to protect children
online, while respecting the free speech rights of content providers,
is being unveiled today by the Internet Content Rating Association
[ICRA], an independent, non-profit organisation, based in Europe and
North America.

The new content labelling system, which can be found at www.icra.org,
is the culmination of a year's consultation exercise to create an
internationally acceptable rating system which could be adapted to
different national, cultural and individual needs. The second part of
the system, a filter that allows parents to set their own controls,
will be launched mid 2001.

"A significant inhibitor to the growth of the Internet is parental
concern about unsuitable material," says Stephen Balkam, Executive
director of ICRA. "Parents in particular are concerned about what
their children will see and experience on the web. We are confident
that the new ICRA system will give parents a useful tool to help them
to overcome their concerns without interfering with freedom of
expression."

ICRA has evolved from the US-based Recreational Software Advisory
Council Internet rating system [RSACi]. RSACi was developed in the US
in 1996 with only four categories - nudity, sex, language and
violence. ICRA is a global system with more categories of concern,
including the promotion of drugs, alcohol, tobacco and weapons. All
of the descriptions against which sites are rated are neutral.
Context variables are included for the first time to distinguish
sites that have educational, artistic or medical content and there is
a new category to deal with chat rooms.

ICRA is supported by a board whose membership reads like a 'who's
who' of some of the world's leading Internet and communication
companies including AOL, Bell Canada, British Telecom, Cable &
Wireless, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, OnDigital and The Bertelsmann
Foundation. Each provides first class expertise and experience in
Internet service, content provision, telecommunications and browser
technology fields. This co-operation between competitors reflects the
Industry's concerns about responsible Internet development and its
recognition that only by working together can they provide the
reassurance needed to make the Internet a vital tool, accessible to
everyone.

A recent court case where paedophile, Patrick Green, used the
anonymity of the Internet to lure a minor into his home, highlighted
the vulnerability of children to not only direct contact from
dangerous elements such as Green, but also to Internet sites that
subject children to harrowing images and messages of pornography,
violence and hatred.

ICRA uses PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection), developed
by the World Wide Web Consortium, which enables labels (metadata) to
be associated with Internet content. It was originally designed to
help parents and teachers control what children access on the
Internet.

To label a site the content provider completes a questionnaire at the
ICRA website - www.icra.org. From there the ICRA labelling engine
creates an appropriately formatted label following the PICS standard
that contains details of the website being labelled. This is then
presented to the provider on screen and via e-mail.

This label is then pasted in to the head of the web page and
transmitted with every serving of that particular page. The system
allows for the labelling of a single page, a directory or an entire
site with a single label saving the content provider from having to
paste the label in to every single page. Web pages carrying content
labels of this sort can be read and interpreted by applications on
PCs and desktops that provide a level of filtering based on the
content of the label found. Current examples of these applications
are Microsoft's Internet Explorer Content Advisor and Netscape's
NetWatch. This means that almost everyone with a PC already has the
tools to read the ICRA labels without any further applications or
cost.

The actual engine is hosted by Cable & Wireless in their state of the
art Network Operations Centre in Swindon, UK and enjoys unparalleled
connectivity to the Internet.

Concludes Sheridan Scott, ICRA chair and Chief regulatory officer,
Bell Canada:

"ICRA is committed to providing a system that is objective. We do not
operate with any censorial or moral agenda. We simply want to provide
a means for parents and other responsible adults to be able to choose
what their charges view. Only by providing systems like this that
help reassure parents that the Internet can be a safe learning and
communication tool can it reach its full potential for everyone."

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

ICRA:
The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) is an independent
non-profit organisation with offices in Europe (UK) and the USA.
ICRA's mission is to protect children from potentially harmful
material on the Internet, whilst protecting the content providers'
freedom of expression.

ICRA works in partnership with content providers toward the
responsible development and growth of the Internet and is supported
by AOL, Bell Canada, The Bertelsmann Foundation, BT, Cable &
Wireless, Digimarc, Electronic Network Consortium (Japan), EuroISPA,
IBM, Internet Watch Foundation, Microsoft Corp, Network Solutions
Inc, Novell, OnDigital, PAGi (Singapore), Software and Information
Industry Association, T-Online, Thus and UUNet.

ICRA is currently developing a new global system which will provide
content providers with a tool to label their content objectively and
parents with a device to filter content according to what they feel
is appropriate for their children to view. The revised ICRA system
will be launched in two parts - the labeling system for content
providers is now available and the filtering systems for parents will
be available in 2001.

As well as the ICRA labelling system, the organisation owns and
operates the RSACi (Recreational Software Advisory Council on the
Internet) rating and filtering system, which is integrated into
Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator. The RSACi
system provides customers with information about the level of sex,
nudity, violence, and offensive language in websites.

Also see http://www.icra.org/press/releases.html for US, German,
Spanish and French versions of this news release.

=====
David Goldstein
Schallmooser Haupstr. 40/3
A-5020 Salzburg
Austria

email: Goldstein_David () yahoo com au
phone: +43 699 1097 6197 (mobile)



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