Politech: FC: Pressure to rate the Net mounts, from NYT/CyberTimes

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[I rather think the Starr Report should be rated indecent, and thus
off-limits to library patrons. And cnn.com reports of atrocities in East
Timor? Definitely violent and off-limits for teenagers. Oh, wait, a news
exemption to the ratings? I'm sure Playboy will love that. Sigh. --Declan]


> Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 11:30:30 -0400
> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> From: Barry Steinhardt <Barrys () aclu org>
> Subject: Cybertimes on International Ratings
>
> Declan,
>
> The International movement to rate the net grows. Attached is a piece from 
> Cyber Times.
>
> Barry
>
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/cyber/articles/25ratings.html
>
>
> September 25, 1999
>
>
>                     Internet Rating System Plans to Globalize
>                     By PAMELA MENDELS
>                     In response to the increasing globalization of the 
> Internet,
>                     a content rating and filtering system that was
originally
>                     developed primarily for the United States will be 
> expanded
>                     to encompass a more global audience.
>
>
>                      Sometime next year, the Internet Content Rating 
> Association
>                     is scheduled to launch a re-vamped version of a major
>                     ratings and filtering system called RSACi in the hope 
> that
>                     it can appeal to parents and Web publishers worldwide.
>                     "RSACi was an American response to an American concern,"
>                     said Stephen C. Balkam, executive director of the 
> Internet
>                     Content Rating Association, a four-month old
organization
>                     that has offices in the United States and Britain. "We 
> need
>                     to internationalize the system and governing structure."
>                     RSACi was launched in 1996 largely in response to
federal
>                     government attempts in the United States to regulate
>                     indecent content online. The system was an offshoot
of an
[...]

>                     The idea behind a re-vamped RSACi is to develop a rating
>                     system that considers the sensibilities of parents
around
>                     the world, not just American parents, as the Internet 
> begins
>                     to attract a bigger global audience. For example, Balkam
>                     said that Europeans as a whole have less concern about
>                     online nudity and more concern about violence than their
>                     American counterparts. In addition, he said, Europeans
>                     harbor a stronger consumer resistance to the idea of
>                     personal information being bought or sold, and so 
> might want
>                     ratings to reflect Web sites' privacy protections for
>                     children.
>                     The possibility of an international rating system has 
> been
>                     in the spotlight lately, because of an ambitious but
>                     controversial proposal released at a conference in
Munich
>                     earlier this month.
>                     The document, drawn up by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a
>                     German policy research group, recommends a number of 
> ways in
>                     which the Internet industry could police itself to help
>                     parents prevent their children from accessing
potentially
>                     harmful material online. Among them is the creation of 
> a new
>                     international system whereby Web publishers would rate 
> their
>                     own content and parents could then choose either to 
> block or
>                     allow access to material based on how the ratings mesh 
> with
>                     their values.
[...]



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