Weburbia Safe For Kids Rating Classification Logos Safety Censorship


Safe For Kids rating classification



The web page rating system specified by PICS has now become standard and is integrated into some popular web browsers. The Safe For Kids rating scheme has therefore been extended to take advantage of this facility. To use the system in your browser you must download the weburbia.rat file. (In case your browser can't download the file at that link there is also a text version here use the Save As File option on your browser to save it from there.) For users of Windows-95 this must be placed in their WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. It can then be activated using the appropriate options on the Internet Explorer browser.

Other browsers and search indices which can read the PICS labels will be around soon. If you are a software developer please think to include a PICS feature. You do not need to ask permission to use the Safe For Kids scheme or distribute the weburbia.rat file but we will be pleased to hear about your enterprise if you do.

Safe For Kids is just about the simplest possible rating system. Web sites are self-rated by the author of the pages. There are just three possible ratings. This page is to help you, the authors, to classify web pages you have written. To do this you will need to add PICS compliant labels in the header of the HTML source. If you are using a web authoring tool and it does not have a feature to add PICS labels you can use a text editor to add the label tags by hand into the HTML source. These should be placed between the <HEAD> tag and the </HEAD> tag. To be effective they need to be included in every page of your web site. You can use several PICS labels for different rating schemes on the same page and many authors do.

Rating

There are just three ratings. If there is nothing on the page that any parent would not want there children to see they can be rated as Safe For Kids. If the page is intended exclusively for adults it should be rated Adults Only. Anything else which falls in between can be rated Parental Guidance. Each page on your site should carry a ratings label so that web browsers and other applications can find it. The different pages on the same site do not all have to have the same rating. These rules are meant to be as simple and unambiguous as possible but in case they are not clear we give some further guidance:

0. Safe For Kids: Pages which are rated by their author as Safe For Kids even when unsupervised. You should use this rating only if your pages are squeaky clean. If in doubt, read the descriptions of the other ratings below. The HTML code for this rating is,

<meta http-equiv="PICS-Label" content='(PICS-1.1 "http://www.weburbia.com/safe/ratings.htm" l r (s 0))'>


1. Parental Guidance: Pages which are suitable for older kids when their parents or teachers are with them to supervise and offer guidance. These sites may have content which not all parents consider suitable for children. The HTML code for this rating is,

<meta http-equiv="PICS-Label" content='(PICS-1.1 "http://www.weburbia.com/safe/ratings.htm" l r (s 1))'>

It is impossible to state exactly what should be allowed under this rating rather than the adults only rating, since it depends on context and degree. You should be conservative in your judgements but as a guide, examples of content which may be included under this rating are,

  • limited nudity in an artistic or naturist context,
  • drugs avoidance education,
  • sex education for teenagers,
  • games which simulate gambling,
  • adictive games,
  • hunting,
  • pen-pal contacts,
  • stories unsuitable for younger children because of some bad language or adult themes,
  • Shocking subject such as cruelty to animals,
  • Uncontrolled areas such as discussion forums.

2. Adults Only: Pages which are not suitable for kids. Authors who use this rating should be aware that labels of this sort can be used in ways which they may not have intended. For example, it is possible that employers may use the system to restrict access to their employees at work. If you, as an author feel that they and others have a right to do this then you can use this label. The alternative, if you do not like censorship of any kind, is to not use any rating label at all on your pages. Parents should be advised to restrict access to their children so that they cannot see unlabeled pages when unsupervised. The HTML code for this rating if you wish to use it is,

<meta http-equiv="PICS-Label" content='(PICS-1.1 "http://www.weburbia.com/safe/ratings.htm" l r (s 2))'>

Only you can judge if your site is suitable for adults only, but please be conservative. As a guide you should use this rating if your pages contain adult material such as any of the following or links to pages which have them.

  • pornographic images or stories,
  • gratuitous bad language,
  • drugs promotion,
  • sex education for adults,
  • gambling,
  • violent images or horror stories,
  • adult dating or contact services,
  • pro-racism, sexism or other prejudicial subjects,
  • advertising of products for adults only including smoking and alcohol.

If you are concerned about censorship issues please read our response to "Is this censorship?"

You may also wish to place one of our logos on your page with or without a link to this site. It will help us promote the Safe For Kids scheme.

On behalf of parents and kids we thank you for using the Safe For Kids scheme.

Page created 21 December 1996, Last updated 29 May 2006