Sites Offer to Cloak Questionable Content

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Several popular sites and powerful companies have announced they will support a new, voluntary initiative to label Web sites for content.

Representatives of children's and parents' groups and an attorney specializing in First Amendment law are among those endorsing the initiative as a viable alternative to government regulation to control potentially objectionable content.

The Internet Content Rating Association, a European nonprofit that opened a North American branch this year in Washington, created the system. It works like this: Content providers complete a questionnaire on the association's site. The ICRA then sends the site's Webmaster a meta tag to be incorporated into the site's source code, so visitors will be alerted to potentially objectionable content. A number of U.S. Web sites already are using the system.

User Controls

Starting this spring, users will also be able to take advantage of the content ratings in a more proactive way. For example, a parent can fill out a questionnaire on ICRA's site indicating that they want to block sites that contain nudity. However, users can specify that nudity in an artistic or medical context is acceptable. They can then download a free filter. Once installed, the filter will block all sites that have meta tags indicating the presence of nudity, or whatever function the user has deemed inappropriate.

"Context is important, and ICRA includes those very important context variables," says Phil Archer, who helped develop the system.

ICRA got the endorsement Tuesday of a number of companies, including Microsoft, IBM, AOL Time Warner, Verizon, Yahoo, and Playboy.com. Some sites, such as Playboy.com, are already labeled and ready for the filter.

Avoiding Orders

Archer said successful self-regulation will blunt calls for government regulation.

"This will only be effective if content providers self-regulate," says Sheridan Scott, chair of the ICRA board.

MSN sites "are being labeled" using the ICRA system, and future versions of Internet Explorer will incorporate the system, says Bill Guidera, a Microsoft spokesperson. Since Explorer 3's introduction in 1996, the browser has included a content adviser that has been updated with each release, Guidera said.

The Parents' Advisory Group for the Internet is also represented on the ICRA board. A parent, Heather Lucas, says ICRA's efforts ease her concerns about her children's Internet use without compromising her opposition to government censorship.