- From: Joseph M. Reagle Jr. <reagle@w3.org>
- Date: Thu, 04 Jun 1998 16:56:53 -0400
- To: pics-interest@w3.org
http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-PICS-Statement
___
[1]W3C NOTE-PICS-Statement-19980601
Statement on the Intent and Use of PICS:
Using PICS Well
W3C NOTE 01-June-1998
Latest Version:
[2]http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-PICS-Statement
This version:
[3]http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-PICS-Statement-19980601
Previous Version:
n/a
Editors
* Joseph Reagle, W3C, [4]reagle@w3.org,
* Daniel J. Weitzner, Center for Democracy and Technology,
[5]djw@cdt.org
Signatories:
* Stephen Balkam, President, Recreational Software Advisory Council
(RSAC)
* Tim Berners-Lee, Director, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
* Alan Kotok, Associate Chairman, W3C
* Jim Miller, Co-Chair of PICS Technical Committee, Lab for Computer
Science, MIT
* Martin Presler-Marshall, Editor/Co-author PICSRules, IBM
* Joseph Reagle, Policy Analyst, W3C
* Paul Resnick, Chair, PICS Interest Group; School of Information,
University
of Michigan
* Daniel J. Weitzner, Deputy Director, Center for Democracy and
Technology
[Those interested in becoming signatories after this is posted as a
note will likely be listed on a separate page.]
Status of This Document
This document describes the intent of PICS development and recommends
guidelines regarding the responsible use of PICS technology. While it
is relevant to the [6]PICS specifications it was not created as part
of the PICS Working Groups (which are closed). However, it was
submitted for review to the W3C Policy and PICS Interest Groups before
publication. It has no official W3C standing. Comments to the editors
or endorsements are welcome.
_________________________________________________
The signatories state the following with respect to the intent, and
usage of PICS (all PICS specifications):
Overview
In August of 1995, leading members of the Internet community came
together to begin the development of technical specifications that
would enable users to 1) easily find appropriate content and 2) avoid
content that they consider inappropriate or unwanted, either for
themselves or their children. These specifications were designed to
ease the creation of, and access to, labeling schemes (and associated
content selection and filtering mechanisms), allowing various people
or organizations to label Web content in ways that best suit their
different viewpoints. The PICS specifications were not intended to be
limited to applications regarding potentially offensive content.
Rather, it was hoped that PICS would be used for many purposes, such
as third-party ratings on the timeliness and technical accuracy of a
site's content.
Final technical specifications were completed in early 1996. Since
then PICS has been incorporated into a number of [7]products, a
variety of PICS-based rating [8]services have been (and continue to
be) developed for the web, and a number of stand-alone [9]filtering
tools are PICS-compatible.
Many who were involved in the creation of PICS recognized that the
World Wide Web provides access to an extraordinary range of content,
some of which some people consider either inappropriate, unwanted, or
harmful for some users, especially children. The global nature of the
Web, and the fact that it serves numerous communities with a great
diversity of values, suggested that national, or even international
laws restricting certain kinds of speech on the Web would neither be
effective nor necessarily desirable for the Web. Instead, PICS was
developed to accommodate a wide range of communities online.
The original PICS proposers based their work on a general set of
principles, detailed below. In the time since PICS and other content
selections tools have been deployed on the web, much has been learned
about the use of PICS-based techniques. This note builds on those
Principles a set of functional guidelines for implementing PICS-based
components of the Web infrastructure, PICS rating services, and
PICS-based content selection tools to assure that they are designed in
a manner that comports with the original PICS Principles and the free
flow of information on the Web.
Restatement of PICS Principles
The original 22+ organizations that proposed the PICS Specifications
also adopted the following statement of principles to guide their
work:
We believe that individuals, groups and businesses should have easy
access to the widest possible range of content selection products,
and a diversity of voluntary rating systems.
In order to advance its goals, PICS will devise a set of standards
that facilitate the following:
Self-rating:
enable content providers to voluntarily label the content they
create and distribute.
Third-party rating:
enable multiple, independent labeling services to associate
additional labels with content created and distributed by
others. Services may devise their own labeling systems, and the
same content may receive different labels from different
services.
Ease-of-use:
enable users, parents and teachers to use ratings and labels
from a diversity of sources to control the information that
they or children under their supervision receive.
PICS members believe that an open labeling platform which
incorporates these features provides the best way to preserve and
enhance the vibrancy and diversity of the Internet. Easy access to
technology which enables first and third party rating of content
will give users maximum control over the content they receive
without requiring new restrictions on content providers.
Guidelines for the Usage of PICS
In addition to the principles above, we recommend that systems and
services based on PICS ought to be implemented with the following
guidelines in mind. These guidelines promote the principles of
diversity, disclosure, control, and transparency.
* Using PICS Rating Systems and Services: The Web, through PICS
implementations, ought to support access to a variety of labeling
systems that reflect the diversity of moral and cultural values
held by those that use the Net.
1. No single rating system and service can perfectly meet the
needs of all the communities on the web.
2. The ability of multiple organizations to use PICS to create
lists of suggested content is an encouraged means of using
PICS. These lists may be distributed through label bureaus
and be used for searching, or as "white" lists of materials
that should be permitted even if they would otherwise be
blocked.
3. Filtration and labeling schemes should be designed such that
the combined effect does not lead to a chilling of expression
or the creation of significant barriers to diverse opinion
and content. Small and non-commercial sites should continue
to be a part of the Web available to all users.
* Creating Labeled Content: The creation of content that is labeled
should be done in a way so as to maximize the transparency and
integrity of the Web.
1. PICS-based systems should facilitate disclosure of the
criteria used to rate content.
2. Content rating should be as simple as possible for authors
and content providers who wish to label content.
3. The decision to self-label should be at the discretion of
content creators and publishers.
4. If a content creator is concerned about the accuracy of a
third party rating, she should be able to investigate how her
materials are rated and have some means of requesting a
change in the ratings where they do not match the stated
criteria of the rating service.
* Using Labeled Content: Users should have the ability to understand
and control the choices made in the selection of content in an
easy and transparent manner.
1. Users of PICS-based content selection systems should have
easy access to information about the filtering criteria, the
values or principles underlying them, and to the
configuration of the content selection systems. This can be
accomplished by providing the following information in the
product documentation or at the Service URL:
a. a clear statement of the methodology used to create the
labels;
b. a contact (both physical and virtual) for questions or
concerns.
2. When access to a particular URL is blocked through an
implementation of PICS, error conditions or other user
interface functions ought to specifically indicate that the
URL is not accessible because of blocking by a content
selection tool. Relevant information could include:
a. the rating system whose value is out of range (if more
than one is being used) and which variable and value led
to the blocking of a URL.
b. some indication of where the blocking occurred.(i.e. is
it part of the browser and under local control, or is it
a proxy and if so who owns and/or operates the proxy.)
3. It should be as easy as possible for an authorized user to
install and modify filters. In particular, we recommend that
filtering software have the ability to import filtering
preferences that are specified using the PICSRules language.
Other Documents
* [10]Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) Home Page
* [11]Internet Summit Technology Inventory
* [12]PICS, Censorship, and Intellectual Freedom FAQ
References
1. http://www.w3.org/
2. http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-PICS-Statement
3. http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-PICS-Statement-19980601
4. mailto:reagle@w3.org
5. mailto:djw@cdt.org
6. http://www.w3.org/PICS
7. http://www.w3.org/PICS/#Products
8. http://www.w3.org/PICS/#Developers
9. http://www.microsys.com/pics/software.htm
10. http://www.w3.org/PICS/#Products
11. http://www.research.att.com/~lorrie/pubs/tech4kids/
12. http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/pics/intfree/faq.htm
___________________________________________________________
Joseph Reagle Jr. W3C: http://www.w3.org/People/Reagle/
Policy Analyst Personal: http://web.mit.edu/reagle/www/
mailto:reagle@w3.org
Received on Thursday, 4 June 1998 16:56:43 UTC