Internet Content Rating Association

This is the jump-off point for a whole raft of information. Some of it is right up to date, other articles are older but still provide relevant information.

We’ve divided the page up into several sections:

	ICRAdiary	This is the most up to date information about what various members of the ICRA team are up to, events and conferences attended, meetings held etc.
	ICRAinfo	Links to more general information about ICRA and its place in the internet community.
	ICRAprojects	This is where you’ll find more detailed information about what ICRA is up to and where we’re heading. Current projects include ICRAfilter.
	ICRApress	Links to press releases and press contacts.
	ICRAclippings	Links to online articles which relate either to ICRA directly or to internet safety in general.
	The Internet Content Rating Association is supported by the EU Internet Action Plan.

Easier labelling for large sites

Work is underway on testing new ways of labelling large or complex sites quickly and easily by configuring Apache or IIS servers to include PICS labels in HTTP headers. This is how the authors of PICS envisaged labelling to be carried out originally and all the tools are there, we just need to test it out thoroughly using current Apache and IIS software… and ICRAfilter and Content Advisor.

A first draft of the advice is now available click here.

Offline labelling form available
ICRA has released its first “Offline labelling form.” This tool is designed for use by webmasters who may be responsible for tens or hundreds of sites and who wish to be able to generate meta tags quickly. The form can be used to generate not just ICRA content labels but a whole host of other meta tags such as keywords, content description, language etc. – all of which can be generated repeatedly without having to re-enter the same data every time or look up obscure HTML/XHTML codes.

After receiving almost universal favour, the form has been adapted following some feedback and is now fully available for use. It is a single HTML/JavaScript file with no graphics or other extras so it is truly portable. Each time you use it, the form should add an e-mail to your outbox to be sent to ICRA next time you go online.

If you would like to host the form on your site, please feel free to do so. It is fully self contained and will work on any web site. You are free to adapt the introductory wording to suit your own site although the terms and conditions and help files must be retained without change. If you do host a copy of the form on your site, we’d be grateful if you let us know.

To download the form please use either of the following links:

• 19Kb zip file
• As a new web page (72Kb)

Please send any feedback to [email protected].

Official ICRA launch in Washington DC
In an unparalleled display of public-private partnership, the three most trafficked Internet destinations AOL, MSN and Yahoo! have adopted the Internet Content Rating Association [ICRA] content labeling system with broad support from children’s advocates and the First Amendment community. Content providers such as Playboy.com have also self-labeled their sites. Today, ICRA kicked off a campaign to urge others to join the effort.

For the complete press pack, please click here.

The Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington DC has expressed support for ICRA. See the full text of their letter, click here.

GBDe Recommends ICRA labelling

The Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe) is a worldwide, CEO-driven effort to develop policies that promote global electronic commerce for the benefit of businesses and consumers everywhere. Members include CEOs of world leading corporations such as Cable & Wireless, Hitachi and Hewlett Packard. At their conference in Tokyo between the 13^th and 14^th of September, the Cyber Ethics Task Force under the chairmanship of Thomas Middlehoff, Chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann AG, recommended the use of PICS labelling and filtering in general and of the ICRA system in particular. To see the relevant extract from the final document In PDF format), please click here. For full details of GBDE, see their web site here.

The Council of Europe adopted a recommendation to its member states where it strongly supports self regulatory approaches to help protect children and preserve free speech on the internet. Self labelling is very much encouraged, and the recommendation gives a lot of detail to the criteria for self labelling. See the full text here or the press release here. (The Council of Europe brings together 43 European nations and is quite separate from the European Union).

14^th August 2001

Uncompressed PowerPoint^© file (1.6Mb)
Compressed (WinZip^©) file (1.2Mb)

ICRA is delighted to be working closely with Digimarc, the leader in digital watermark technology and applications, to bring a new kind of labelling to the internet. Using features already available in the some of thew world’s leading image software, it is now possible to add a persistent “Adult content” flag to images. Known as Protecting Kids with Digimarc™ (or PKD for short), the system is complementary to the ICRA system and shares our “empowering parents through self-regulation” ethos. Although Digimarc’s technology is well established throughout the world, PKD is a new venture with plans for future development already in place. For full details, please click here.

The SIFT Project is ICRA’s new project under the European Union’s Internet Action Plan. Led by Spanish family software developers Optenet and supported by the Greek National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos,” Sift will build on ICRAfilter in extraordinary ways. The aim is to produce a single platform into which a wide variety of filtering solutions can be added. Based on ICRA’s choice not censorship mantra, the Sift project will combine Demokritos’s Filterix^® “learning filter,” and ICRA’s labelling matrix. Optenet’s existing filtering solution will be adapted to work with the new platform to prove the concept of a chain of filters working together to provide parents with complete flexibility and choice.

The official Sift website can be see at http://www.sift-platform.org.