Industry Consortium Forms to Create Technology Standards for Internet Content Filtering

Strategic Insights -

A group of leading software producers, publishers, and on-line services is coming together to create technology standards for filtering pornography and other questionable material from the Internet. This effort, called the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS), is being announced today as a private-sector alternative to government censorship of the Internet. The industry initiative aims to provide parents and schools with the tools to protect children from offensive material using specialized blocking software, mirroring the House's Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act, which calls for industry to set standards and develop software for filtering content. The PICS group, under the auspices of the World Wide Web Consortium, will develop technology standards so that all filtering programs would have certain elements of common software code, to be distributed free by early next year.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) is a consortium of over a dozen leading software producers, publishers, and on-line services aiming to create technology standards for filtering pornography and other questionable material from the Internet.
  • The industry effort, under the World Wide Web Consortium, seeks to provide a private-sector alternative to government censorship of the Internet by developing a platform for rating systems, not a rating system itself.
  • Participants include major companies such as Microsoft, International Business Machines Corporation, Apple Computer, Netscape Communications, and Time Warner, among others.
  • The industry initiative aims to provide parents and schools with the tools to protect children from offensive material using specialized blocking software, mirroring the House's Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act.
  • The group's chairman, Rob Glaser, emphasizes the importance of addressing parents' concerns while also upholding the civil libertarian ethos of the Internet and the country's tradition of free speech.
  • The PICS group intends to develop a platform for rating systems that will allow parents to determine which Internet sites their children can access or to adopt these rated lists from outside groups.

Statistics:

  • The PICS group consists of over a dozen leading software producers, publishers, and on-line services.
  • The consortium is developing technology standards for filtering pornography and other questionable material from the Internet.
  • The industry effort is under the auspices of the World Wide Web Consortium, based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  • The group intends to distribute the accepted standards free by early next year.
  • The corporate members of the PICS group include Microsoft, International Business Machines Corporation, Apple Computer, Netscape Communications, AT&T, MCI Communications, and Time Warner, among others.

Sources:

  • "More than a dozen leading software producers, publishers and on-line services are forming a consortium to create the technology standards needed to filter pornography and other questionable material from the Internet."
  • "The standards initiative, called the Platform for Internet Content Selection, or PICS, is being formally announced today."
  • "The industry effort, under the auspices of the World Wide Web Consortium based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, comes as Congress considers two legislative approaches to controlling content on the Internet."
  • "The Senate in June passed the Communications Decency Act, which would impose severe penalties on those who distribute sexually explicit material on the Internet."
  • "Critics say it is overly broad, covering everything from child pornography to profanity, and may be unconstitutional."
  • "Rob Glaser, a software executive who will be chairman of the PICS group, said "The Internet is at a crucial point now, because it's becoming a mass medium, Parents have real concerns, and the industry is responding."
  • "He added: "We are trying to come up with solutions that are wholly consistent with the civil libertarian ethos of the Net and this country's tradition of free speech."