Internet industry leaders gather for launch of ICRAfilter

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Internet industry leaders gather for launch of ICRAfilter

21st March 2002

Today's unveiling of ICRAfilter marks a significant development in
international efforts towards empowering parents to protect their
children on the Internet without infringing on content providers'
freedom of expression.
 
ICRAfilter is the second phase of the Internet Content Rating
Association (ICRA) global labelling system. The initial phase was the
creation of the first truly international syntax to describe content
on the Internet. Content providers can voluntarily and objectively
label their own sites by completing a questionnaire which generates a
descriptive html tag or label following the PICS standard. ICRA's new
filtering tool 'reads' the labels ensuring that parents world-wide
will now be able to filter content according to their values and what
they feel is appropriate for their own children. 

Currently over 50,000 sites are labelled including some of the most
trafficked providers of adult material on the Internet. The world's
top three sites Yahoo, MSN and AOL, which account for half all
Internet traffic in the USA, are in the process of labelling. 

ICRA promotes co-operation between competitors and sees other
filtering providers as potential collaborators, working with them to
incorporate elements of ICRAfilter into their products. Stephen
Balkam, Chief Executive Officer of ICRA, comments, "It is important
to state that no organisation, including ICRA, can guarantee a 100%
safe surfing experience. Having said that, ICRA does give consumers
the most democratic, culturally neutral, self-determining option
available. We are offering the first modular approach to Internet
filtering based on participation by everyone, content providers,
template creators, parents and other concerned adults. We are
delighted that BTopenworld, Tiscali & others are adopting the
ICRAfilter and urge other manufacturers and ISPs to include
ICRAfilter or add the functionality of ICRAfilter in their own
filtering products." 

Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes, speaking at the launch
congratulated ICRA on its innovative and internationally sensitive
approach to the complex issue of content labelling. "I am delighted
to see this international effort being launched from the UK. We all
need to make sure that we take sensible precautions to protect
ourselves and our children online and the ICRA filter will provide
parents with a useful and accessible tool. 

"It complements the multi-stranded work being done by the Task Force
on Child Protection on the Internet, particularly our recent public
awareness campaign. Our aim is to work in partnership with industry
to make the UK the safest place in the world for children to use and
enjoy the many benefits the Internet offers." 

ICRAfilter differs from other filtering tools on the market on two
levels - primarily, its foundation in choice not censorship, in which
it is supported by a consortium of leading Internet companies,
associations and academics. The ICRA labelling system is purely
descriptive of content and not a 'rating' based on moral judgement.
All web sites are voluntarily rated with neutral descriptors. It is
parents or other responsible adults who judge what is appropriate for
their own children at the point of setting up the ICRAfilter. 

Secondly, ICRAfilter offers enhanced functionality. ICRA provides an
internationally acceptable labelling system with increased categories
of concern including the promotion of drugs, alcohol, tobacco and
weapons as well as sex, nudity, language and violence. Context
variables are included to distinguish sites that have educational,
artistic or medical content. This adaptability allows the filter to
grow with the child and work within different cultures. 

ICRA's modular approach means parents can also enter web addresses to
'block' or 'allow' access irrespective of any ICRA label. In addition
to a parent's self-created lists, lists from trusted third parties,
such as the Anti-Defamation League, can be downloaded and utilised.
By interpreting ICRA labels and lists of web sites a parent can also
choose to import filtering templates - a set of rules covering what
should and what shouldn't be allowed according to criteria set by a
trusted third party organisation. 

Further security features include the ability for lists of web sites
within templates to be 'hashed' - one way encryption that cannot be
broken - and for templates to carry digital signatures which prove
authenticity. 

In addition parents have the option of shutting off access to
specific parts of the Internet such as email, chat rooms, newsgroups
and secure web sites (typically used for credit card transactions). 

ICRAfilter, works on Window 95 upwards and operates independently of
any browser. It is available as a free download from the ICRA web
site without any options pre-configured. Parents can also obtain
ICRAfilter from a growing range of other companies preloaded in their
own branded filtering templates. 

The ICRAfilter launch was hosted at the BT Conference Centre by ICRA.
Speakers at the launch included Home Office Minister, Beverley
Hughes, Chair of the Government Task Force on Child Protection on the
Internet and Mark Stephens, the Human Rights advocate and lawyer, a
champion for freedom of expression on the Internet. 

Sheridan Scott, ICRA chair and Chief regulatory officer, Bell Canada,
concludes, "Today's unprecedented gathering of leading industry
figures is testament to the seriousness with which the business
community takes its collective corporate responsibility for promoting
a secure online environment governed with integrity. The demonstrable
collaboration between industry, academics, non-profits, government,
educators, media and parents fills me with much hope for a future
Internet where our children will be able to learn and explore without
risk." 


ENDS
Some words from the Industry: 

With the power of the Internet allowing access to virtually any kind
of information, including the offensive or distressing as well as the
educational and informative, we must take every step possible to
protect our children while they are online. The Internet Content
Rating Association, like AOL's own Parental Controls, empowers
parents to keep their children safe online while allowing them to
enjoy entertaining and enriching content. 

Camille de Stempel, Director of Security and Network Policy, AOL
Europe 

Microsoft continues to believe that empowering parents and users
through new technologies is the best way to balance the need for
Internet and consumer control. ICRA is an important component in
developing these new technologies and delivering them to the public. 

Shereen Meharg, MSN EMEA Child Protection Manager 

As an international non-profit organisation committed to making the
Internet a great place for children, Childnet believes that ICRA is
playing a crucial role in developing free tools that will enable
parents from different cultures around the world to make their
children's online experiences safer. 

Nigel Williams, Chief Executive, Childnet International 

When the Internet Watch Foundation was created in 1996 to set up a UK
hotline our ISP sponsors imaginatively included a brief to develop
self-labelling systems. We have supported ICRA and its predecessor
throughout that time to develop a freely accessible and
internationally acceptable labelling and filtering scheme. We are
delighted to see the successful culmination of those efforts with the
launch of ICRAfilter. 

David Kerr, Internet Watch Foundation 

VeriSign has been pleased to support the work of the Internet Content
Rating Association. It embodies what we think are the most effective
ways to deal with the serious problem of content that is
inappropriate for children on the Internet: technology tools that are
reliable, global, flexible, and available to parents and teachers at
little or no expense. It is through efforts like ICRA's that many of
the most important challenges raised by the global Internet are
being, and will be, successfully addressed. 

Roger J. Cochetti, Senior Vice President & Chief Policy Officer
VeriSign 

Verizon believes it to be good public policy to educate parents and
children about safe and productive use of the Internet, and to equip
them with the best tools and information with which to control
content. Accordingly, Verizon considers it to be presumptive, at
best, for business or government to decide which content is bad, and
which is good, for end-users. This notion of "end-user empowerment"
has led Verizon to fully support ICRA and its goals. 

Frederick B. Cooke Jr./EMP, Vice President Government Relations 


ICRA's ability to bring together very different and often competing
private sector interests from around the world to support a single
cause is a resounding achievement. It is testament to the value many
of us place on making the Internet a safer experience for children,
and how that goal can be realized within a context that also
champions freedom of expression and cultural diversity. Bell Canada
is proud to be part of this achievement. 

Sheridan Scott, Chief Regulatory Officer Bell Canada 

Notes to editors


ICRA is a global non-for-profit organisation of Internet Industry
leaders committed to making the Internet safer for children, while
respecting the rights of content providers. 
ICRA's funding comes from membership and EU funding with additional
income being generated by licensing both labelling and filtering to
third parties 
The top 3 sites in the world Yahoo, MSN and AOL have agreed to label,
major porn sites have labelled including Playboy, Hustler and Persian
Kitty 
As of 21 March 2002 ICRAfilter will be available in English and
German to be followed shortly by French and other major languages 
In addition to labelling their web sites, companies and organisations
that partner with ICRA can utilise the Protecting Kids with Digimarc
programme. Webmasters can embed an imperceptible code into digital
images to flag the images as containing adult content. The digital
"flag" stays with the image as it is copied, allowing the flag to
travel with the image to other Internet destinations such as e-mail,
newsgroups and web sites - enabling the image to be identified and
managed as it is used online. 
ICRA evolved from the US-based Recreational Software Advisory Council
Internet rating system [RSACi]. 
ICRA uses PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection), developed
by the World Wide Web Consortium, which enables labels (metadata) to
be associated with Internet content. It was originally designed to
help parents and teachers control what children access on the
Internet. 
The filter was developed for ICRA by Internet Designers Limited (IDL)
based in Cambridge. IDL met ICRA's key objectives and made a
significant contribution to the filter specifications. 


http://www.icra.org/press/p19.html

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