The Internet Content Rating Association is an international, independent organization that empowers the public, especially parents, to make informed decisions about electronic media by means of the open and objective labelling of content. ICRA’s dual aims are to:
- protect children from potentially harmful material; and,
- to protect free speech on the internet.
There are two elements to the system:
Web authors fill in an online questionnaire describing the content of their site, simply in terms of what is and isn’t present. ICRA then generates a Content Label (a short piece of computer code) which the author adds to his/her site.
Users, especially parents of young children, can then set their internet browser to allow or disallow access to web sites based on the objective information declared in the label and the subjective preferences of the user. The ICRA system can be used with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer immediately, with wider applications under development. The existing RSACi labels can continue to be used in both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator but will be phased out over time.
A key point is that the Internet Content Rating Association does not rate internet content – the content providers do that, using the ICRA system. ICRA makes no value judgement about sites.
ICRA is a non-profit making organization with offices in both Brighton, UK and Washington DC, USA. Members include many of the internet industry’s leading names from around the world.
Click
herefor a brief overview of the development of RSAC and ICRA since 1994.
ICRA’s labelling system is designed to be as objective as possible, and to cover a wide range of content types. The system gives users a great deal of flexibility in their choices of what should and shouldn’t be seen in their home or workplace. The browser’s filtering system can of course be disabled and enabled easily… if you’re the one with the password!
The broad topics covered are:
- Chat
- The language used on the site
- The nudity and sexual content of a site
- The violence depicted on the site
- Others such as gambling, drugs and alcohol.
Within each broad category the web author is asked questions about whether a specific item or feature is present or absent on the site. This is in contrast to the earlier RSACi system where “levels” of nudity, sex violence and language were set.
For full details of the questionnaire, see the
“view before you label”page for web authors here.
For details of how to set up the filter in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, click
here.
Content Labels generated by ICRA conform to an internet industry standard known as PICS – the Platform for Internet Content Selection. ICRA’s forerunner, the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) was involved in the development of the standard, created by the World Wide Web Consortium. The RSACi system (RSAC on the internet) has been incorporated into Netscape Navigator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the latter since the release of version 3.0 in February 1996. Full technical details of PICS can be found at the
W3C site. See the timelinefor a brief history of the development of PICS, RSAC and ICRA since spring 1994.
There are a number of compelling reasons why a web author would label his/her site with ICRA. Let’s take four examples:
- Commercial sites, with little or no objectionable material will want to label their site so as not to be blocked “by default.” When a parent sets up the filter for their child, they will be offered an option to allow or disallow access to “sites that have no rating.” Most sites want the maximum number of visits to justify advertising or other related commercial activity. It would make good marketing sense for all commercial sites to be rated (labelled), whether or not they have any content that could be described as harmful.
- Operators of sites designed specifically for children will want to label their sites as some search engines build their database of “child-friendly sites” by looking for ICRA labels.
- The majority of operators of “adults only” sites are generally just as keen not to offend young children as the next person. Furthermore, labelling their site sends a clear signal to governments that the World Wide Web is willing and able to self-regulate, rather than have the heavy hand of government legislation decide what is or is not acceptable.
- All other things being equal, a site carrying an ICRA label is more likely to be perceived as trustworthy than one which is not labelled.
Chief Regulatory Officer
Bell Canada
Chief Executive
Internet Watch Foundation
Federal Government Affairs Associate
Microsoft Corp.
General Counsel
AOL Europe
Senior VP for Global & Strategic Policy
AOL Inc.
Director
Childnet International
President
Dot Kids
Executive Director
Electronic Network Consortium
Senior Program Manager for Public Affairs
IBM
Chief Executive Officer
Internet Content Rating Association
Jean Armour Polly
NetMomSenior VP & Chief Policy Officer
Network Solutions Inc.
Chairman
Parents Advisory Group for the internet (PAGi)
| Chair Sheridan Scott |
Vice Chairman David Kerr |
| Vice Chairman Bill Guidera |
Vice Chairman Marcell Machill Director Media Policy
Bertelsmann Foundation |
| Clare Gilbert | George Vradenburg |
| Robert Miller Group Legal Services
BT |
Chris Gretton Director, Global Standards
Cable & Wireless plc |
| Nigel Williams | Cindy Aggson Partner Programs Manager
Digimarc Corp. |
| Tim Yrastorza | Akio Kokubu |
| Jean -Christophe le Toquin Director
Euro ISPA |
Christopher Mustain |
| Stephen Balkam | |
| Roger Cochetti | Randy Winters Novell |
| Tony Moretta Head of Interactive Services
ONdigital |
Carmee Lim |
| Frank Vogler |
T-Online International AG
Clive Feather Internet Expert
Thus
Sally Weatherall Director of International Regulatory Affairs
UUNet
| Chairman Nigel Williams Director Childnet International UK |
Jerry Berman Executive Director Center For Democracy And Technology
USA |
| Dr. Peng Hwa Ang Vice Dean School of Communications Studies Nanyang Technological University
Singapore |
Jean Armour Polly Author, Librarian and Mom
USA |
| Prof. Jack M Balkin Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and The First Amendment Director, The Information Society Project – Yale Law School
USA |
Cornelius Crans Director Netherlands Board of Film Classification P/T Teacher
Netherlands |
| Bruce A Rigby Acting Assistant General Manager Dept. Education, Employment & Training
Australia |
Kenji Naemura Professor Graduate Scool of Media and Governance and Faculty of Environmental Information Keio University
Japan |
| Izumi Aizu Principal, Asia Network Research Sdn. Bhd. Secretary General, Asia & Pacific Internet Association (APIA) Senior Research Fellow, GLOCOM, International University of Japan Manager, Research & Planning, Institute for HyperNetwork Society
Japan |
Al MacKay General Manager The Cable Public Affairs Channel
Canada |
| Francisco Martin Abreu Spain |
Nana Makaula CEO and Chairperson South African Film and Publication Board
South Africa |
|
As ICRA operates internationally, we receive a number of e-mails questioning our spelling of the English language. This of course stems from the differences between the spelling norms adopted by English speaking countries around the world. As we are based in England, we have used British spelling for words like “labelling”, “favourite” etc. We have however used the “~ize” form of words like “organization” as this is acceptable everywhere… and we had a lot of e-mails from the US when an earlier version of this web site included the (normal for Britain) “organisation”! The logo buttons (such as the one at the bottom of this page) are available in US-English (labeled with ICRA) and non-US English forms (labelled with ICRA), as well as other language variants… and with no words at all for complete safety. That said, if you find any typos, do let us know! |