The SurfSafety.com news letter is *NEVER* sent unsolicited. If you feel you have received this news letter in error or wish to unsubscribe DO NOT HIT REPLY! Automatic removal instructions are at the end of this newsletter. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you enjoy reading this newsletter as much as we do writing it, by all means, pass it on! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this issue: 1. First look at the new ICRA 2. Upgrades to SurfSafely.com 3. Invitation to exhibit at Safe Surfing 2001/ UFCWS partnership. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Other news and guest articles may be submitted for editorial review to mailto:news@surfsafety.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First look at the new ICRA ========================== The new content labeling system from the ICRA (Internet Content Rating Association) is here. The name itself is somewhat of a misnomer. They do not act as an independent rating authority as the name might suggest. Rather, they provide a means by which content may be filtered based upon how web content is voluntarily labeled by its' authors. The ICRA is a nonprofit organization made up of top ranking officials from many of the major Internet players globally. When they formed as a body they acquired the rights to the RSACi (Recreational Software Advisory Council for the Internet)labeling standard to hopefully turn it into something a bit more useful for parents and developers alike. For a long time RSACi went unchanged as they strategized a new direction for it. One of its' greatest shortcomings was that it was far too coarse and did not contain enough categories to judge content by. The other shortcoming was that it was not coarse enough. It had no ability to set a general age category for the intended audience regardless of type of content that made it so. As an ICRA field trials participant I was able to evaluate the new system prior to final release and provide my input to help shape the final product for me and for you. Unfortunately, not all of what I asked for in the finished product made the final cut. ICRA did a marvellous job of defining to the Nth degree where you as a parent or school administrator might draw the line between permissible content and not; So much so that, in my estimation, they went too far. They also STILL did not include a general age category. There is a lot of content out there which simply can not be defined in terms of sex, violence, language and nudity to which authors may still wish to place an age limitation on. But perhaps the greatest shortcoming of all is that the new ICRA standard is not yet supported by Netscape in any way, nor is it bundled with Internet Explorer. If you wish to use the new filtering mechanism now, you must download it from ICRA.org and install it before it will work. The one thing they did do right is they did make the new standard backward compatible with the old RSACi standard. This means if you go to ICRA.org to rate your site, they will create a tag for you that older RSACi filters will recognize. Actually, what you get is a meta tag that's two labeling systems in one; ICRA and RSACi. It also demonstrates to web developers how they should be combining multiple rating standards into one PICS meta tag to overcome Internet Explorer's deficiency of only recognizing the first PICS tag it sees and ignoring any others. For example, if you enable RSACi to filter and encounter a web site that is rated by both mechanisms, if the developer did not combine the tags and SafeSurf is placed first on the page, Internet Explorer sees only the first tag which it does not understand and reports that no content labels exist at all! Netscape looks at them both and passes only pages with content less than or equal to the lowest common denominator of the two rating standards. Just as it should be. One more reason to make Netscape your browser of choice. With all due respect to the ICRA, SafeSurf is still my rating standard of choice. They got it right the first time and it has stood the test of time. All browser vendors would do well to licence and bundle it with their product. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Upgrades to SurfSafely.com. =========================== As we enter the real new millennium, SurfSafely.com continues to grow in size and popularity. We now have well over 15,000 PICS rated links to choose from! Many web site owners have taken us up on our invitation to place a "Find it now at SurfSafely.com" search box on their web sites and traffic is skyrocketing! Unfortunately, the unprecedented growth rate we are experiencing has also created some unpleasant side effects; growing pains. I have just spent the last two days upgrading the banner management software which promptly crashed on January 1 because, while it may have been Y2K compliant, it was not new millennium compliant. Nor could it serve up hundreds of thousands of ads a day as the new software can. Next on my agenda is to upgrade the indexing software with a package I have found to be infinitely more capable that its' predecessor. Much to my chagrin, I learned all too late that the former was really only meant for 5000 or so links. 15,000 is really making it bulge at the seams but the new package can easily handle millions and still find the one you want lightning fast! One last upgrade to the site has been the submission criteria. Many of my colleagues had begun to question my resolve to allow adult material to be indexed at my site. My position had been that as long as they were rated, parents had the tools to block what they did not want. The reality is the majority of my audience did not want it there in the first place, rated or not. You spoke, I listened. So now, it's gone! Details of our revised policies can be found at http://surfsafely.com/terms.html. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Invitation to exhibit at Safe Surfing 2001 ========================================== SurfSafely.com has been invited to exhibit at Safe Surfing 2001, the first annual international convention for online safety to be held February 22-24 at the Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre. Recognizing the unprecedented potential for SurfSafely.com to further the efforts of promoting online safety, organizers and sponsors of the event have offered to provide me free of charge booth space, a booth, table, chairs, power, signs and everything else that goes along with it to be represented there. Roughly speaking, that's about $5000 worth of concessions to have me attend. I'd say they see the value in what I'm doing. As it stands right now, it looks like I will also be partnering with James Fisher, chairman and CEO of the United Federation of Childsafe Web Sites (http://www.ufcws.org/) and possibly also Ray Soular, author of the SafeSurf PICS labeling system (http://www.safesurf.com/) at this event in Singapore. SurfSafely.com is currently seeking individual and corporate sponsors to cover travel, accommodation and other expenses for one delegate to attend. If you or your company would like to make your commitment to online safety made known on the international stage, please contact me via the feedback page at SurfSafely.com. I am also looking forward to an invitation to share a podium at a similar event to be held in Washington DC some time in March. Present will be members of congress and the senate, public safety officials, school officials, religious organizations and child safety advocates from all over the country, the news media and if I'm lucky, maybe even president elect George W. Bush. What a great way to start off the new millennium! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's news for now. Until next time... Be informed, Be involved, Be well. Sincerely, Mark Brasche ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~