ICRA Tags
The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) allows web site owners to voluntarily label their web site with Meta Tags that describe the content of each page in a coded format.
The ICRA Tags help users to trust what they find on the Internet and to avoid content that they regard as inappropriate for themselves or their children. The vocabulary of the ICRA labels can be used to describe any digital content in a manner that reflects a broad range of parental concerns around the world. ICRA also supports legacy content rating tags from the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) and Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS).
The descriptions can be used by network filters, search engines and helper applications that display extra information for users. Although the code is voluntary it is essential for some web sites. For example a local community web site may not be accessible from a computer in a public library unless it declares through ICRA tags that it does not contain any adult content, many corporate firewalls will also restrict employee access to web sites that haven't been labelled, and PCs used at home are often equipped with software (such as Microsoft Content Advisor) that will not permit a connection to a web site without a PICS label.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of the content that people may consider to be objectionable is published on web sites without tags. Therefore, the ICRA system fails to deliver a safe viewing environment unless network filters have been configured to deny all access, except those sites approved with the appropriate tags. This is a rather strong handed measure but is increasingly being used for legal reasons in public and work environments. Also, content rating tags aren't popular with everyone, especially proponents of freedom of speech and those against censorship.
Quotes can insert the ICRA Tags into your web pages upon request. We recommend using ICRA Tags if you know your target audience may be viewing from a restricted network environment.
http://www.quotes.co.uk/icra.php
Last updated: Sunday, 30th July 2006
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