[thelist] Content Rating

[Saila, Craig]

Kevin Stevens wrote:
> Does anyone know anything about this? Is it true? Or have I
> been mislead?This snippet came from

It's sort of true in that there is a ratings scheme recommended by the
W3C beginning in 1997 called PICS (Platform for Internet Content
Selection):
<http://www.w3.org/PICS/>

Many sites do have a rating (including mine), but it is not widely used
technology. I've yet to encounter a browser that blocks sites without it
by default and most companies rely on firewalls to do the blocking, and
those usually rely on list of keywords, not PICS.

You /can/ set-up filters to block sites without that info though (either
within the browser or as an additional piece of software.)

There's a good W3C-based FAQ on it here:
<http://www.w3.org/PICS/PICS-FAQ-980126.html>

I personally have no real problem rating my site because all the content
is relatively "safe" and the same.

Where real problems arise is in news/information based sites -- for
example, some of the more detailed stories involving any human deaths or
violence. In that case, if you rated the story accurately, some readers
with the filters enabled might not be able to access the piece.

--
Cheers,

Craig Saila
------------------------------------------
craig at saila.com : http://www.saila.com/
------------------------------------------