Internet Content Rating Association

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.

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.

Full details of the questionnaire and how to set up the filter in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, are available on the full version of this web site.

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.

There are a number of compelling reasons why a web author would label his/her site with ICRA. Let’s take four examples:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.