Re: UKNM: Is anybody out there using PICS ratings?

[Sajid Mohammed]

---Bill Thompson <

billdial [dot] pipex [dot] com

> wrote:

> Everybody knows about PICS ratings (RSACi/SurfWatch etc) but

> nobody seems to be using them - how come?


In brief:


1) Netscape has not supported PICS until now - Release 5.0 will

support PICS ratings. IE has for sometime - but have you ever looked

at the settings and changed them?


2) SurfWatch type software *is* controversial. For example, in one

celebrated case access to a section of The Whitehouse site about Mr

and Mrs Gore was denied by filtering software because the text

contained the highly erotic word 'couples'. Pity the music fan looking

for pages about hardcore.


3) There is no obligation on web providers to rate files. It's one

less thing to think about when you're pushed for time.


Inevitably, however, as more people go online there will be growth in

the filtering software - I see legions of Guardian-reading parents

living in Hampstead freaking out about Little Johnny downloading the

Anarchist Cookbook.


Personally, I think we may be in for a 'balkanisation' phenomenon,

where large commercial providers will implement PICS (like Disney,

CNET etc.) and cautious parents will turn on the filters - meaning

that kids will only be exposed to those parts of the Web. The rest of

us will probably carry on as before.


One possible scenario is that the media continue to fuel fears about

the dangers of unregulated web usage and Givernment uses this as a

means to restrict freedom of speech by introducing proposals to

regulate content online by making ISPs liable as publishers rather

than common carriers - which I think is a legal grey area at the

moment. Precedents have yet to be set, as far as I am aware.


The press and advertising industries employ a self-regulatory model.

RSACi and other systems would be our bulwark against imposed

regulations if we all had a common voice and said that we will

implement RSACi (which isn't *that* much of a bind).


Without wishing to sound like some Noam Chomsky groupie, Government

likes demonising factions to introduce wide ranging laws e.g.

anti-Hooligan legislation used against Miners, anti-stalker

legislation used against roads protestors and so on.


Self-regulation (using PICS extensively) may prove to be an acceptable

solution to fears about content online and preseve the libertine

nature of this wonderful medium.


Sajid Mohammed

_________________________________________________________

DO YOU YAHOO!?

Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com