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New filtering tool from the Net-ratings folk (March 22, '02 issue)
The new software, called "ICRAfilter, was developed by the London-based, nonprofit Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) and is free for the downloading at ICRA.org. After installing it, parents can "either opt for pre-set filters or set up their own, depending on how much freedom they want their children to have," reports the BBC.
Besides the fact that it's free, what's unique about this filtering product is that it's based on ICRA's international Net ratings system. Web sites voluntarily rate themselves, using a standard, ICRA-provided questionnaire, based on the internationally recognized PICS technical standard. So far 50,000 sites (including ours) have rated themselves. That may be a drop in the bucket for the multi-million-site Web, but these are among the most popular sites on the Internet. "The world's top three sites Yahoo, MSN and AOL, which account for half all Internet traffic in the USA, are in the process of labelling," ICRA says in its press release this week. Parents can configure the software on their own PCs to add or delete specific Web sites.
ICRA expands on what distinguishes this filter from any other: "its foundation in choice not censorship, in which it is supported by a consortium of leading Internet companies, associations and academics. The ICRA labelling system is purely descriptive of content and not a 'rating' based on moral judgment.... It is parents or other responsible adults who judge what is appropriate for their own children at the point of setting up the ICRAfilter." And we appreciate this other distinction: the way the software can embrace multiple cultures and grow with a child. It includes "context variables," as ICRA puts it - providing context sensitivity for content categories (sex, nudity, language, violence, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and weapons) "to distinguish sites that have educational, artistic or medical content. This adaptability allows the filter to grow with the child and work within different cultures."
Readers' comments on this resource would be most welcome! Do email us via feedback@netfamilynews.org.
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