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ICRA Rating

An attempt to explain how to label a site. Getting the green light at the ICRA Label Tester can be a difficult task...

Case 1:

If you are labelling an whole site or a branch of a site and, in that case the label is:

<!-- <meta http-equiv="pics-label" content='(pics-1.1 "http://www.icra.org/ratingsv02.html" l gen true for "http://www.yourdomain.com/folder/" r (nz 1 vz 1 lz 1 oz 1 cz 1) "http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" l gen true for "http://www.yourdomain.com/folder/" r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0))'>

... where gen true means this label should normally be put in the index file of the site or branch (directory). Note that reference to any file (such as index.html) is removed from the URL. Personally I would add it to every page, since visitors can enter your site by other pages than the index one (see point 1 below).

Case 2:

If you are labelling specific pages and rating only the page carrying the label, then the label should be:

<!-- <meta http-equiv="pics-label" content='(pics-1.1 "http://www.icra.org/ratingsv02.html" l r (nz 1 vz 1 lz 1 oz 1 cz 1) "http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" l r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0))'>

... where the omission of the gen statement (note that there is no URL) means that this page carries a valid ICRA label which can be applied irrespective of its location and the label applies only to the page which carries it (see point 3 below).

Case 3:

If you are labelling only a few pages and files, and you want to rate them in other pages, then the label could be:

<meta http-equiv="pics-label" content='(pics-1.1 "http://www.icra.org/ratingsv02.html" l gen false for "http://www.yourdomain.com/folder/home.html" r (nz 1 vz 1 lz 1 oz 1 cz 1) "http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" l gen false for "http://www.yourdomain.com/folder/home.html" r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0))'
'(pics-1.1 "http://www.icra.org/ratingsv02.html" l gen false for "http://www.yourdomain.com/stylesheet.css " r (nz 1 vz 1 lz 1 oz 1 cz 1) "http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" l gen false for "http://www.yourdomain.com/stylesheet.css " r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0))'
'(pics-1.1 "http://www.icra.org/ratingsv02.html" l gen false for "http://www.yourdomain.com/images/logo.gif " r (nz 1 vz 1 lz 1 oz 1 cz 1) "http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" l gen false for "http://www.yourdomain.com/images/logo.gif " r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0))'>

... where gen false (and the complete file URL) means that this label does not necessarily have to be on the page to which it applies (although that's a good place to put it!). See point 2 below.

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Further explanations:

(1) A whole site is just that, a whole site, accessed by a unique domain name such as http://www.icra.org. If you control a whole domain like this, then you probably want to just get a single label for the whole site. Such a label contains just the url of your site and not a specific file name.

A branch of a site would then be a specific area of that site such as http://www.icra.org/support. It may be that your site - the bit you control - is actually a branch of a much larger site of which you have no direct control. This is true of some of the large internet communities for example. You're labelling a branch, not the whole community.

You may also wish to label a specific area of your site differently from the rest. For example, you may have a chat/message board area. OK, label the whole site as NOT having this, but then add a second branch label which does declare the chat. The url in branch labels ends with the name of a directory (folder) on your site, not a specific file name.

In both site-wide and branch labels, you'll see the term "gen true". This is an abbreviation for "generic true" and simply means that every page whose url begins with the string quoted in the label will be rated according to that label.

(2) If you label a single page then you'll see the term "gen false". This means that only the page specified in the label is rated. That label will not be applied to any other page. The url in such labels should end with a specific file name such as page1.htm. The location of this label is not important since it includes the url to which it applies. It is possible, for instance to put all the labels for a site in one place, such as the root index file. The more usual practice however is to put specific labels in the head section of the page to which they apply.

(3) It is possible to create a label which does not specify any url, i.e. with no gen term. In this instance only the page which actually carries the meta tag will be labelled. This is useful when you want to label the document itself rather than the url(s) from which it is available.

(4) Whenever the site's content is declared as "Child Safe", it is advisable that the corresponding rating label (meta tag) and graphic either from ICRA™ or SafeSurf must be present in the site's entrance page. The label (meta-tag) must at all times reflect accurately the content it describes. See below a typical Child Safe ICRA™ label:

r ( nz 1 vz 1 lz 1 oz 1 cz 1)) , no disturbing or not suitable for young children material, no chat room (or a moderated chat suitable for children and teens).

the n stands for nudity and sexual material, v for violence, l for language, o for other material (such as gambling, tobbaco, alchool, drugs, etc.) and c for chat room. The z following the previous character means: none of the items falling in this category (as per ICRA rating questionnaire) is present in the web site. If any of the items is present, you will see, instead of the z, another letter, indicating the present item. In this case we should look for an additional string finishing in r, s, or t meaning that the referred material is included in a artistic, educational or medical context and it is suitable for childreen.

Example: r ( ni 1 nr 1 vj 1 vr 1 lz 1 oz 1 cz 1)) meaning that there is sexual material (ni), the i item corresponds to "Passionate kissing" but it is included in a artistic context and is suitable for young children (nr); there is violence (vj), the j item corresponds to "Deliberate injury to fantasy characters" but it is included in a artistic context and is suitable for young children (vr), no language issues (lz), no other objectionable material (oz) and no chat room or a moderated one (cz).

I sincerely hope this can help you! For more information about ICRA and PICS Labels, visit:

• PICS - Platform for Internet Content Selection (W3C)
• The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA)

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"Internet Content Rating Association," "ICRA" and the ICRA logo are registered as trademarks in the UK and USA.

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