The following may give an example of how companies and governments want PICS to be used, instead of how it should be used (market-based ratings not for censorship). -Allen

Copyright 1996 Nando.net Copyright 1996 Reuter Information Service

PARIS (May 9, 1996 12:41 p.m. EDT) -- A consortium of leading computer firms launched a global rating system Thursday enabling parents to shield their children from sexually explicit and violent material on the Internet.

The firms also hope the system will protect them from angry governments who blame the largely unpoliced international computer network for bringing pornographic material across their electronic borders.

"We do believe it will provide legal protection in a situation where adult material is being distributed to minors," said Andrew Gray, European general manager of CompuServe. "It will very much strengthen our position in these kind of situations."

The system, an industry standard known as PICS -- for Platform for Internet Content Selection -- has been in the works for nearly a year, and will take several more months to become a useful tool for parents and educators, its primary targets.

Under the system, 39 internet-related firms including giants America Online, CompuServe, Microsoft, Prodigy and Netscape Communications will soon give their customers software enabling them to block access to material they judge objectionable on the Internet's Worldwide Web.

The software will enable parents and teachers to filter out pages according to their own choice of level of violence, sex, nudity and language.

At the same time, providers will be urged to rate their pages by filling out an electronic questionnaire resulting in a "grade" for each site, on a scale ranging from zero, the most innocuous, to four for each category.

What was I saying about pressure to rate?

The system depends for its ratings on voluntary compliance by Internet providers. However parents will also have the option of simply blocking out all unrated pages, simply by checking an electronic box on their computer screens.

This is, of course, assuming that "Internet content providers" won't simply rate their pages as suitable for all ages. [...]

But there is no way to use the system to seek out pornography or violence on the web, officials insisted.

Yeah, right.

"To content-providers, I would say, 'Rate your sites' To parents I would say, 'Set the levels for your children.' And to governments, I would say humbly, 'Think again before censoring the net,"' Stephen Balkam, executive director of the Recreational Software Advisory Council, told a news conference.

Note again the pressure for self-rating.

"CompuServe supports selection and not censorship, empowerment and not restriction," Gray said, announcing that his firm would begin distributing the necessary software to customers in July.

Netscape, whose Netscape Navigator Internet-browsing software is the most widely used in the world, will begin offering a new version incorporating the ratings capability by the end of the year, Technology Director Martin Haeberli said.

"Parents and educators must have some way, some tool, to enable them to moderate what is available," Haeberli said.

Only if you approve of parental censorship.

Internet firms around the globe have been under the gun from governments to better police their offerings that offend local sensibilities, which vary considerably from country to country.

A strength of PICS is that "it allows as many countries as would like to set up a rating system," said Jim Miller, a research scientist who helped develop the system. Adhering to the system would still be up to individual households, however.

Whatever became of market-ratings? Admittedly, they may mean that each country will be encouraged to given an example system... but I still don't like the idea of government involvement. [...]