SafeSurf Press Release
1300-G El Paseo Road #104, Las Cruces, NM 88001
E-mail: press at safesurf dot com * Web Site: http://www.safesurf.com/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . February 22, 1996
Contact : Vincent Jules
Press Phone : (818) 613-1415
INTERNET COMMUNITY MAKES THEIR "MARK"
Van Nuys, CA -- A massive movement for self-regulation has begun on the Internet with thousands of sites on the World Wide Web rushing to code themselves with the SafeSurf Internet Rating System. An easy to use form located at the SafeSurf Web Site (http://www.safesurf.com/) has already enabled over twenty thousand sites to rate themselves based upon their content, announced Wendy Simpson, president of SafeSurf, an parents online organization dedicated to making the Internet safe for children.
"We've been inundated with visits to this form," stated Simpson. "Our "easy to rate" form is giving the Internet community the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to self-regulation and responsible publishing."
The Internet rating system was introduced by SafeSurf in mid-1995 as part of its efforts to create a safe "cyber-playground" for children. Soon after, a combined effort between the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and 22 of the top industry companies, known as PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) asked SafeSurf to assist them in designing and establishing a Internet protocol for rating. SafeSurf has now expanded their original rating standard to comply with the PICS protocol and is designing the PICS testing server at MIT.
The PICS protocol provides filtering and browser companies with a common method to read all rated content. The end result is that parents will be able to designate viewing levels according to the age of their children and their own personal standards. The system now gives parents the tools needed to set the computer to only accept material they have determined is appropriate for their family.
However, in order to be universality accepted, the PICS protocol needed to be easy to grasp by even the most inexperienced Web publisher. SafeSurf resolved this issue by creating a special form that not only generates the necessary code and rating automatically, but sends this information directly to the users e-mail box with exact instructions on how to place it in their Web document. This enables anyone to rate their site, regardless of their understanding of how the system works.
"Since our inception, our focus has been on making technology serve the family," pointed out Ray Soular, SafeSurf's Chairman. "The solution lies in redesigning the way the Internet works, not in censoring it ."
SafeSurf's is concerned that the recently passed Telecommunications Bill will not protect children, but instead take away from parents their fundamental right to raise their children according to their own standards, defining the word "indecent" for themselves rather than the government.
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