The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) is an
international, non-profit organization of Internet leaders committed to making
the Internet safer for children, while respecting the rights of content
providers. ICRA has long believed the best approach to protecting children
online is through “user empowerment” – giving families the
tools to control their online experience. When used voluntarily, tools
like ICRA’s empower families to assure their online experience supports
their values, without compromising free expression or undermining other
users’ access to information.
ICRA
has created a voluntary, internationally accepted self-labeling system that
allows content providers to identify and label their website using pre-defined,
cross-cultural categories. ICRA does not rate content. Content providers
do that, using the ICRA system. ICRA makes no value judgments about which sites
are suitable for a child. Parents and other concerned adults do that.
ICRA
believes the best way to accommodate the global diversity of individual and
family values and at the same time preserve the vibrancy of Internet content is
to give families the tools they need to tailor their own Internet
experience. ICRA is therefore supportive of additional tools, like the proposed
.xxx TLD that enhances a parent’s ability to protect their children
online.
In
addition to the philosophies of ICM Registry and ICRA being complementary, the
technological solutions under consideration are of significant interest.
Systems that allow content providers to describe their content at the point of
domain registration and for those descriptions to be made available as labels
to filtering tools would be to the advantage of parents and industry alike.
Mary Lou Kenny
Director North America
ICRA
Have you labeled your
Website yet? Checkout http://www.icra.org TODAY!!!!