April 03, 2002




This filter has been developed to demonstrate a transparent, freely available tool to enable parents to control access to material they deem inappropriate or potentially harmful to their children and at the same time protect freedom of expression.

The filter is based on the idea that self labelling is the most democratic and transparent way of dealing with vast amounts of content and that self-labelling is the primary technology for achieving the balance of several interests. Although it can be combined with other blocking technologies, such as block lists, the product is dedicated to the idea that such blocking is based on trust established between the content provider and the parent, and the list supplier and the parent. Therefore all blocking is transparent so the parent can see why or by whom something is blocked. The parent remains in complete control of what is blocked and what is allowed.

Why bother to label?

There are a number of compelling reasons why you should consider labelling your site with ICRA.

Let's take four examples:
1. If you run a commercial site or any other site with little or no objectionable material you don't want your site to be blocked "by default." When a parent sets up the filter for their child, they will be offered an option to allow or disallow access to "sites that have no rating" (i.e. unlabelled sites). As the ICRA labelling system gathers momentum, more and more parents are likely to choose "disallow".

2. If you run a site designed specifically for children, labelling your site will make a positive, machine-readable statement that the site is "childsafe."

3. If you run an "adults only" site, an ICRA label is a simple step you can take to help to avoid access by children. As well as protecting children, it sends a clear signal to governments that the World Wide Web is willing and able to self-regulate, rather than have the heavy hand of legislation decide what is or is not acceptable.

4. All other things being equal, a site carrying an ICRA label is more likely to be perceived as trustworthy than one which is not.

Users, especially parents of young children, can then set their internet browser to allow or disallow access to web sites based on the objective information declared in the label and the subjective preferences of the user. The ICRA system can be used with Microsoft's Internet Explorer immediately, with wider applications under development.

ICRA is a non-profit making organization with offices in both Brighton, UK and Washington DC, USA. Members include many of the internet industry's leading names from around the world.