http://www.newslink.org/ajrjdl21.html
X-Rated Ratings?
J.D. Lasica, American Journalism Review, October 1997
---begin extract---
"When President Clinton challenged the high-tech industry this summer to
create a "family-friendly Internet'' by cleaning up cyber-smut and other
offensive content, newspaper editorials applauded the president's decision
to forgo government regulation and let private industry police the Net.
Few realized that the White House's "parental empowerment initiative''
would plunge online news publications headlong into the thorniest thicket
of free speech issues in the history of cyberspace--and lead to the news
media's rejection of the president's proposal when it comes to their own
Web sites.
[...]
In July, the [Internet Content Coalition] began the herculean chore of
trying to setdown criteria that would apply to all news organizations on
the globe. To broaden the discussion, it encouraged feedback from a score
of other news organizations, including ABC, CNN, U.S. News & World Report,
Newsday, the Houston Chronicle and Minneapolis' Star Tribune. Its missive
received a withering response.
In August, Time Inc. came out flatly against creating a standard for news
labeling and said it will not self-rate its Pathfinder site, which includes
Time, People, Money, Fortune and other publications. "We believe that the
First Amendment would be endangered by any effort to apply ratings to the
suitability of journalism,'' Time said in its statement.
"It gets to be such swampy territory that we'll all wind up drowning in
it,'' says Daniel Okrent, editor of new media for Time Inc. New Media. "The
Net industry is running around scared of the next version of CDA. But I'd
much rather trust the Supreme Court to strike down whatever nonsense comes
out of Washington than to trust a bunch of Netheads to determine what
people in this country are able to read.''
[...]
The ICC quickly began backpedaling. Meeting in New York on August 28,
representatives from about 25 news organizations voted not only to drop its
plan to create a news label, but it went on record opposing Internet
ratings for news sites. The closed-door vote was nearly unanimous.
By the next day, the Wall Street Journal--one of the few papers to rate
itself--had removed the rating labels from its entire site.
[...]
---end extract---
The full (quite lengthy) article contains excellent coverage of the perils
of rating and labelling systems.
Regards
Irene
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Irene Graham, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. PGP key on h/page.
The Net Labelling Delusion: <http://www.pobox.com/~rene/liberty/label.html>
"...PICS-type systems...might have to be enforced" Peter Webb, ABA, June 96
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