Creating a Net 'Safe Zone'

Two campaigns to establish areas on the Internet that are "safe" for kids have been active in Washington, D.C. The D.C.–based Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) kicked off a campaign in October, urging Web site managers to register their sites with "content labels" that tell parents whether a site contains sexual images or descriptions, excessive violence, or other content that might be offensive.

ICRA's rating system, modeled after similar rating systems for movies and video games, uses a rating scheme called PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection). Web site managers can fill out a free application form on ICRA's site (www.icra.org) to receive a rating meta-tag, which is then added to the HTML coding of the applicant's Web pages. These tags make it easy for filters to find and block objectional content. Backed by companies such as Microsoft and America Online, ICRA officials and supporters hope to see a boom in the use of "rated" sites.

Jerry Kuntz, an electronic resources consultant for the Ramapo Catskill (NY) Library System and creator of Kids-Click!, a Web directory for young people, believes that ICRA's latest effort is doomed. If PICS, which launched a similar campaign in 1997, hasn't caught on by now, he reasons, "Why should anyone think it will catch on now?"

Meanwhile, Congress is considering H.R. 2417, a bill that would establish a "dot-kids" domain. The Internet Commission for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international group that manages the way addresses are used on the Internet, rejected an effort to establish a dot-kids domain last year (see "Dot-Kids on the Skids," January 2001, p. 24). The Congressional bill seeks to force ICANN to establish such a domain anyway. But because of the difficulty of forcing an international body to bend to the will of the U.S. government, a proposed amendment would merely require that the Commerce Department establish a "kids.us" domain—similar to the geographically based domains of many public schools and public libraries—to serve the same purpose.

Kuntz thinks the dot-kids proposal doesn't make sense. He's concerned that libraries might be forced to filter out useful content that's intended for a general audience—blocking everything but dot-kids Web sites.