ICRA labelling is in essence a straightforward, objective process of checking boxes: is a particular type of content present or not present? However, we recognize that the labelling of certain websites is more complicated, and so in an effort to assist the webmaster in accurately labelling his/her site, we offer some further guidance on this page.
Please bear in mind at all times: the descriptors should be applied to all depictions, be they images, portayals or descriptions.
The content of news sites changes daily; therefore it is almost impossible to use labels that state ‘this descriptor is present’ and be confident that the label will be accurate at all times.
Therefore, for non-static sites such as news sites, we recommend using the ‘may or may not be’ labels. These are obtained by omitting to fill out any of the boxes in the sections in the questionnaire. The resulting label will be something like:
Of course, if there is an area that you know will definitely not be present (such as user-generated content), then you can check the appropriate box in that section of the questionnaire, and this will be reflected in the label. Please also refer to the section on using Context modifiers further in this document.
Remember: it is possible to label individual pages, so if your site is not a news site but simply carries a page that delivers news reports, then you can use this type of labelling just for that page and apply regular labelling to the rest of your site.
Please also note: the ‘may or may not be’ labeling is inappropriate for static sites. If your site content is static, you should declare content types to be present or absent.
While you are responsible for labelling only the content on your own site, and cannot label the sites the links take your users to, many search engines provide a snippet of information along with links delivered by their site. If this is the case, then you may also need to use the same kind of labelling as the news sites (see above).
If your site’s guidelines restrict the kind of links you carry, then you may be able to use the regular labelling method, but please note that you need to carefully look through each of the descriptors, as your links may be depicting alcohol use, use of tobaccco, etc, which should therefore be declared.
ICRA’s concern is how what is depicted on a site will be seen by a parent and/or a young child. Therefore bondage, while it may be understood to be play-acting by adults, will not be understood in this way by a child. We ask webmasters of bondage sites to be sensitive to this distinction.
If the bondage site simply contains images of people in bondage clothing, chains, etc, then the erotica label (along with whatever nudity/sexual material labels are necessary) will cover that scenario.
If it shows someone actually whipping or ‘harming’ someone, the site would need to carry an ‘injury to human beings’ label, as no matter what the intent behind the act, it would be considered as portraying violence.
If the site shows a person cowering in seeming terror, then the webmaster should consider applying the ‘Content that creates feelings of fear, intimidation, horror, or psychological terror’ label, as to a child, this is how it will appear. Please remember: the labels are for children.
The same guidelines apply to sites portraying ‘consensual rapes.’ What is portrayed is a rape, whether it is play-acting or not, and should be labelled as such.
If you operate a chatroom, host a message board or forum, or any other method by which users can directly post content to your site, you should check one or other of the two descriptors in the User-Generated Content section.
If your site is, for example, an online classified-ads site, then this is user-generated material. It simply remains for you to state whether it is moderated (checked by you before posting and therefore in line with the rest of your labelling) or unmoderated (not checked/edited by you).
Guestbooks which do not have hyperlinks to the poster’s address and which are simply snippets published by you do not count as user-generated material. The same applies to testimonials.
If your label declares that your site has ‘none of the above’ in all categories, but you host an unmoderated chatroom where anyone can post anything, you should take this into account when labelling. If you state the site has no swearing, no portrayal of violence, etc, then a parent would reasonably expect the chatroom to be following the same standards. If your chatroom allows these things, then you should consider adjusting your label to reflect this by labelling the chatroom section differently. As the content will change with postings, you could therefore use the ‘may or may not be ‘ labels, discussed in the News Sites section.
The context modifiers are not site descriptions; rather, they are used in very specific circumstances to modify content that may normally not be acceptable to parents when presented gratuitously, but may be acceptable when presented in one of the categories: artistic, educational, medical, sports, news.
[Note that when the site label declares ‘none of the above’ in all areas, then the context modifiers are (correctly) unavailable in the Questionnaire, as there is no declared content to modify.]
The underlying intent behind the use of these modifiers is ‘how a parent would view this material as presented to their child.’ Webmasters should bear this in mind before using any of the modifiers.
‘Artistic’ modifier
This refers to ‘the arts’ as in the classical sense of painting, statuary, performing arts, etc. An example would be a depiction of the Botticelli painting Birth of Venus, (right) which depicts nudity, but in an artistic context.
If your site is an adult site, or a ‘glamour model’ site, then this modifier would not be appropriate, no matter how artistically you feel your images are presented. The guiding principle is how a parent would view the material in relation to their child.
‘Educational’ modifier
An example of the correct use of the educational context modifier would be a site on which the webmaster may have to portray, for instance, drug usage in order to educate people in how to avoid using drugs, or parents in how to detect if their children are using drugs. This would be ‘depiction of drug use in an educational context.’ If the purpose behind the portayal of the descriptors is educational, as opposed to gratuitous, then the descriptors may be modified in this way.
While in a sense any material that tells someone about something could be considered in the broadest sense to be ‘educational’, this is not the intent behind the modifier. Please bear in mind, again, that you should consider how the parent would view the material.
‘Medical’ modifier
An example of the correct use of the medical context modifier would be a site on which the webmaster may have to portray nudity in order to explain medical procedures or disease prevention, such as a site dealing with breast cancer.
Please note that sites dealing with sex aids, Viagra, etc. do not fall into this category, as to a parent descriptors portayed may still be considered inappropriate material. In ICRA labelling terms, ‘medical’ means the prevention and cure of disease, and in adding the medical context modifier, you are suggesting to the parent that the material may therefore be appropriate for their child to view in that context. Again, we ask webmasters to be sensitive to this.
‘Sports’ modifier
A site reporting sports events may have to portray injury to human beings. While this should be reflected in the labelling, the sports context modifier may also be correctly applied.
Please note that this modifier is not appropriate for violent online games, where the depiction of violence is purely gratuitous.
‘News’ modifier
In terms of ICRA labelling, news is material that reports real life events in contexts such as online newspapers. The news modifier may be correctly applied when the news portrays content that in other contexts may be considered harmful by parents, such as violence.
‘Gossip’-type reports, for instance, reports of sexual escapades by celebrities, would not be considered news, but entertainment, and so should not use this modifier.
There is no limit, of course, to the range of subjects covered on the Web. There is however a limit to the number of terms in the ICRA vocabulary. Therefore it is accepted that not all content can be fully described using the ICRA vocabulary. If none of the terms describe your content, then it is correct to say ‘none of the above’ in each section.
If you feel that, despite there being no directly applicable descriptor, you want to ‘label it somehow’ as being inappropriate for children, then you might consider labelling as ‘Content that sets a bad example for young children: that teaches or encourages children to perform harmful acts or imitate dangerous behaviour.’
ICRA reviews its vocabulary periodically, typically every two years. If you feel that a new descriptor should be included, your suggestion will be welcome.