PICS Statement of Principles
PICS is a cross-industry working group whose goal is to
facilitate the development of technologies to give users of
interactive media, such as the Internet, control over the kinds of
material to which they and their children have access. PICS members
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 parents and teachers to use ratings
and labels from a diversity of sources to control the information that
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.
Membership in PICS includes a broad cross-section of companies from
the computer, communications, and content industries, as well as trade
associations and public interest groups. PICS member will deploy
products and services based on these standards.
Comments to Jim Miller.