FW: Al Mackay letter in Ottawa Citizen

["Ang Peng Hwa (Assoc Prof)" <TPHANG@ntu.edu.sg>]

Folks,

ICRA (Internet Content Rating Association) is rolling out the filtering
program. Below is a brief letter describing it written by one of the
international advisory board member.

Ang Peng Hwa




Wednesday 2 May 2001
Children's Web experience improved by right software
Al MacKay
The Ottawa Citizen


Your April 26 City editorial, "Patrolling the Internet," resonated on
several levels. Anyone with a passing acquaintance with current filtering
technology appreciates that the systems being used by the various commercial
programs available today are fraught with difficulties.

Programs built to catch key words often stumble badly, blocking out, for
example, anything to do with breasts, including recipes on how to cook ones
made of chicken.

There is a new initiative being undertaken by an international, non-profit
organization that is developing a different type of filtering tool, one that
involves assessing the content of a site, then providing an appropriate
rating. The Web site's content is also put in context, so that nudity such
as that contained in the Rubens canvas The Rape of the Daughters of
Leucippus won't be screened out, while the charms of the Hollywood Hooters
girls, on display at some sites, will. ICRA, the Internet Content Rating
Association (www.icra.org), has free, downloadable software available now,
and is working to have Web content creators around the world voluntarily
rate their sites to keep children from accessing inappropriate content.


--- the remainder clipped --- See the whole article at:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/letters/010502/5014455.html


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