From: angels@wavenet.com (Colin Gabriel Hatcher) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,alt.censorship Subject: Re: Batman on the Internet??? CyberAngels info Date: 28 May 1996 05:00:02 GMT Organization: CyberAngels Lines: 450 Message-ID: References: <4ndnhe$bqv@hecate.umd.edu> <4oc11b$8tt@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- http://www.safesurf.com/ The SafeSurf Internet Rating Standard by Ray Soular and Wendy Simpson © May 1995 SafeSurf(TM) PICS Version 3.0 © December 1995 The following is SafeSurf's System to protect children on the Internet. It involves rating, classification, filtering and parental education. It employ's the SafeSurf Wave(TM), SS~~(TM), as a certification mark. Part One: OVERVIEW Filtering software would be engaged the moment a "child" password is used. The filtering software would only accept information from the Internet from sites which had been rated. If a home computer equipped with the filtering software should encounter no certification marking, it would immediately block transmission coming in from that site or WWW document. The SS~~ mark is designed to block specific areas of a particular site. Sites which contain different types of information services would only need to mark as "appropriate for children" those areas that they would want accessed by children. A parent using the SafeSurf Rating Standard can deploy several levels of blocking based on what Internet information the parent approves: a six year old would require a different level of blocking from a 16 year old, and the SafeSurf Standard recognizes this fact. The SafeSurf Standard puts the responsibility and the choice into the hands of the parent. The SafeSurf Rating Standard is also designed to function as an Internet search tool by allowing each rated site, or rated sector of a site, to be identified and classified. Therefore, much like an electronic library catalog, a user can locate specific information in an efficient manner. Employing software certified to fully utilize the SafeSurf Rating Standard, a user can target specific information on the Internet, filtering out all non-related data. Someone searching for information on, say, Celtic music would be able to use a search tool that would process all the information on the entire Internet in a matter of moments, bringing them that specific information only. The SafeSurf Standard is superior to any other rating system because it is designed to utilize the full processing power of the user's computer as it goes online. The SafeSurf Standard requires the user to remember only their own password; other systems require users to remember unfamiliar descriptives and codes. Since the system is only employed when a person's computer is in use, the computer itself is used to keep track of all marks, and only translates information to the user as it is needed. Utilizing the computer's memory (instead of the user's) allows for a very complex classification standard. As new categories are added, users can download updates in specific areas of interest directly from the Internet. Since a user's computer is not required to store all category descriptions, even computers with limited storage space can benefit from using this standard. Most importantly, the SafeSurf Standard protects U.S. Constitutional rights by being a voluntary standard. It encourages cooperation by rewarding those who participate with higher traffic on their sites. Those sites only wanting limited access by qualified persons will also benefit, by marking their sites into specific categories. Those sites which do not participate at all will not be penalized, but misrepresented sites will be dealt with by the Internet community. Severe legal penalties will be reserved for those sites containing adult material which entice children by marking themselves as child safe. With the SafeSurf Standard, the ability to change the Internet has been placed into the hands of the child safe sites. If a majority of them spend five to ten minutes to implement this system by marking their site, then a child safe Internet could be realized in matter of weeks. Schools could help with compliance by switching to Internet providers or software that provides SafeSurf filtering features. All ratings shall be subject to confirmation and approval by SafeSurf. All submissions for categories and sub-categories will be reviewed by the Classify Organization Review Committee for approval. New category submissions for sites that do not fit into existing categories will be reviewed for creation on a timely basis. The master database of all categories and their descriptions will be maintained by SafeSurf and made available to the entire Internet community. The SafeSurf Rating Standard includes rating and a topic classification. The computer codes are converted into human readable ratings by the filtering software. Part Two: TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS The SafeSurf Identification Standard is recognized by certification mark is SS~~ (SS plus two tildes). This shall be referred to as the SafeSurf Wave. This will be followed by a group of 4 digits minimum. The first three identify the classification type (ranging from 0-9 then A-Z (base 36)) and the number zero is required as place holder. The fourth digit identifies the level and ranges from 1-9. (The fourth digit is the level and can not be zero because that means the classification has no level or does not exist. In that case it would be better not to list it.) PICS computability requires a space before the last digit. SS~~000 1 The computer codes are converted into human readable ratings by the filtering software. An example of the SafeSurf Wave in a World Wide Web HTML document in PICS format: This Rating should appear before or within the section of a HTML document, prior to any images or sounds files being called: Your Document Title Specific filtering can be achieved in a simple manner by marking each individual HTML page. Again, once a complete document declares its rating every picture or sound file accessed by that HTML page will be considered to fall under the same rating. If a page should contain a link to another page, as is a common practice, the new page would be rated separately. This allows a family mall site containing a book store to choose to deny access by minors to inappropriate sections of that store. The sections must be on a separate page to contain its own rating. An entire directory can be rated with one command in the index.html page of that directory by using the PICS "generic true for" option along with the name of the directory. Suppose the site was sample.com and the sub-directory was called subdir. The entire subdir directory of the site sample.com can be rated with a single META command in the index.html page of subdir, as follows: Although it is possible under the PICS protocol to use the "generic true for" option to mark an entire site. It is advised that each directory contain its own rating in the index.html of that directory. Software encountering the "generic true" option in the index.html page of a directory would buffer the rating and apply it to all unmarked documents in the specified directory. As mentioned earlier, users are not required to interpret the meaning of the characters following the SS~~ certification mark. The interpretation will be handled by the user's computer. To explain the intricacies of the standard, let's look at some basic marks as they would appear in a HTML document. Discussion Example (label only): SS~~002 1 The digit group (002) is the name in computer terms of the category. Our focus in this document will be on the adult themes identified by the SafeSurf Wave as follows: (For a complete description see the Appendix) CODE . . . . . DESCRIPTION SS~~000 ...... Suitable Age Range (note: this category can still be used to limit access to adults) SS~~001 ...... Profanity. SS~~002 ...... Heterosexual themes without illustrations-writings, adult conversation; may include profanity. SS~~003 ...... Homosexual themes without illustrations-writings, adult conversation; may include profanity. SS~~004 ...... Nudity and consenting sexual acts-may include illustrations. SS~~005 ...... Violent themes-writings, devices, militia, adult conversation; may include profanity. SS~~006 ...... Both sexual and violent themes combined with profanity. SS~~007 ...... Accusations or attacks against racial or religious groups. SS~~008 ...... Themes advocating or glorifying illegal drug use SS~~009 ...... Other adult themes requiring parental caution. SS~~00A ...... Gambling SS~~00B to Z ...... (To be used for future expansion of categories) The numeral order of the adult themes listed above is not intended to suggest any more or less caution be given to higher numbered themes. To avoid confusion with the Level of Parental Caution (described below), we advise software developers to present only the theme's description without mentioning its numerical position on the list. The final number (1 in the example) is the Level of Parental Caution. It can range from 1 to 9. (As the standard is designed, the level can not equal zero because that would mean that the Adult was not present. If it is not present, we do not mention it. However, when creating user interface scales you may use zero to allow a parent to completely block access to a specific adult theme.) The mildest Level is number one and the most severe Level is nine. If a child-safe site wants only to be visited by adults, as a matter of preference, it can use a Adult Theme Rating of zero with a Level of nine. A ideal child safe site would contain No Adult Themes (type #0) with a Parental Caution Level of one. This type of site would be considered to be inviting access by children. An access provider could participate in the system by providing this one layer of filtering; this would be the equivalent of a phone company block on 976 numbers. Special layers of filtering for parents who wish to control their children's access to custom Caution levels could be provided, either by providers as an additional service or through third-party software products. A site can contain several adult themes and identify them all. The following example demonstrates this feature. This would be translated to mean that this Web page contains and Rating of Suitable for Older Teens, Profanity with a Caution level of 5, Nudity with a caution level of 2, Bigotry with a level of 2, and Drug Use with caution level of 3. (Note: See Appendix for full meanings.) Classification #00 which is "General Information" describes 1 per cent of the document's contents (General Information is only used as a place holder at this time). We will discuss this feature in detail in an upcoming draft. For now it is important to know that the #1 located after the SS~~ signifies that this is not an adult rating but a information category with a percentage instead of a Parental Level of Caution. Now let's convert a more detailed SafeSurf Rating: The rating (000 1) translates to mean recommended for all ages; (001 2) means profanity with a caution level of 2. The information category identified by the (1) after the SS~~ would be parsed to be 73, 43, 82, 96. Under the PICS protocol the slash identifies the sub-categories (43, 82, 96) which further define the first category (73). Let's suppose that Classification 73 is "Music", 43 is "Instruments", 82 is "Stringed", and 96 is "Violin". The final number (ranging from 1 to 100) is the percentage. Seventy percent (70%) of this document is about violins. The use of the META version allows the multiple classifications to describe a complex document. This META command describes a HTML page that contains four different adult themes and classifies information that covers three different topics. The first topic represents 1/2 of the document's content, while the next two topics represent 1/4 each of the document's content. ### APPENDIX The SafeSurf SS~~ Rating Standard Designed by and for parents to empower each family to make informed decisions concerning accessibility of online content. Section One: Adult Themes with Caution Levels 0. Age Range 1) All Ages 2) Older Children 3) Teens 4) Older Teens 5) Adult Supervision Recommended 6) Adults 7) Limited to Adults 8) Adults Only 9) Explicitly for Adults Section One: Adult Themes with Caution Levels 1. Profanity 1) Subtle Innuendo description: Subtly Implied through the use of Slang 2) Explicit Innuendo description: Explicitly implied through the use of Slang 3) Technical Reference description: Dictionary, encyclopedic, news, technical references 4) Non-Graphic-Artistic description: Limited non-sexual expletives used in a artistic fashion 5) Graphic-Artistic description: Non-sexual expletives used in a artistic fashion 6) Graphic description: Limited use of expletives and obscene gestures 7) Detailed Graphic description: Casual use of expletives and obscene gestures. 8) Explicit Vulgarity description: Heavy use of vulgar language and obscene gestures. Unsupervised Chat Rooms. 9) Explicit and Crude description: Saturated with crude sexual references and gestures. Unsupervised Chat Rooms. 2. Heterosexual Themes 1) Subtle Innuendo description: Subtly Implied through the use of metaphor 2) Explicit Innuendo description: Explicitly implied (not described) through the use of metaphor 3) Technical Reference description: Dictionary, encyclopedic, news, medical references 4) Non-Graphic-Artistic description: Limited metaphoric descriptions used in a artistic fashion 5) Graphic-Artistic description: Metaphoric descriptions used in a artistic fashion 6) Graphic description: Descriptions of intimate sexual acts 7) Detailed Graphic description: Descriptions of intimate details of sexual acts 8) Explicitly Graphic or Inviting Participation description: Explicit Descriptions of intimate details of sexual acts designed to arouse. Inviting interactive sexual participation. Unsupervised Sexual Chat Rooms or Newsgroups. 9) Explicit and Crude or Explicitly Inviting Participation description: Profane Graphic Descriptions of intimate details of sexual acts designed to arouse. Inviting interactive sexual participation. Unsupervised Sexual Chat Rooms or Newsgroups. 3. Homosexual Themes 1) Subtle Innuendo description: Subtly Implied through the use of metaphor 2) Explicit Innuendo description: Explicitly implied (not described) through the use of metaphor 3) Technical Reference description: Dictionary, encyclopedic, news, medical references 4) Non-Graphic-Artistic description: Limited metaphoric descriptions used in a artistic fashion 5) Graphic-Artistic description: Metaphoric descriptions used in a artistic fashion 6) Graphic description: Descriptions of intimate sexual acts 7) Detailed Graphic description: Descriptions of intimate details of sexual acts 8) Explicitly Graphic or Inviting Participation description: Explicit descriptions of intimate details of sexual acts designed to arouse. Inviting interactive sexual participation. Unsupervised Sexual Chat Rooms or Newsgroups. 9) Explicit and Crude or Explicitly Inviting Participation description: Profane Graphic Descriptions of intimate details of sexual acts designed to arouse. Inviting interactive sexual participation. Unsupervised Sexual Chat Rooms or Newsgroups. 4. Nudity 1) Subtle Innuendo 2) Explicit Innuendo 3) Technical Reference 4) Non-Graphic-Artistic 5) Graphic-Artistic 6) Graphic 7) Detailed Graphic 8) Explicit Vulgarity 9) Explicit and Crude 5. Violence 1) Subtle Innuendo 2) Explicit Innuendo 3) Technical Reference 4) Non-Graphic-Artistic 5) Graphic-Artistic 6) Graphic 7) Detailed Graphic 8) Inviting Participation in Graphic Interactive Format 9) Encouraging Personal Participation, Weapon Making 6. Sex, Violence, and Profanity 1) Subtle Innuendo 2) Explicit Innuendo 3) Technical Reference 4) Non-Graphic-Artistic 5) Graphic-Artistic 6) Graphic 7) Detailed Graphic 8) Explicit Vulgarity 9) Explicit and Crude 7. Intolerance 1) Subtle Innuendo 2) Explicit Innuendo 3) Technical Reference 4) Non-Graphic-Literary 5) Graphic-Literary 6) Graphic Discussions 7) Endorsing Hatred 8) Endorsing Violent or Hateful Action 9) Advocating Violent or Hateful Action 8. Glorifying Drug Use 1) Subtle Innuendo 2) Explicit Innuendo 3) Technical Reference 4) Non-Graphic-Artistic 5) Graphic-Artistic 6) Graphic 7) Detailed Graphic 8) Simulated Interactive Participation 9) Soliciting Personal Participation 9. Other Adult Themes 1) Subtle Innuendo 2) Explicit Innuendo 3) Technical Reference 4) Non-Graphic-Artistic 5) Graphic-Artistic 6) Graphic 7) Detailed Graphic 8) Explicit Vulgarity 9) Explicit and Crude A. Gambling 1) Subtle Innuendo 2) Explicit Innuendo 3) Technical Discussion 4) Non-Graphic-Artistic, Advertising 5) Graphic-Artistic, Advertising 6) Simulated Gambling 7) Real Life Gambling without Stakes 8) Encouraging Interactive Real Life Participation with Stakes 9) Providing Means with Stakes Section Two: Classification with Percentage 00) General Information ### (SafeSurf Wave(TM) and SS~~(CM) are trademarks or certification marks of SafeSurf(TM).) - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to the SafeSurf Homepage -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAwUBMajMv7rnmi5CcKeBAQH26QP8C8Cji1pR+6vG6mN5ZoZFT5I8fA9StdN/ kS9wV1q/EaKHec2L/DJvtomc9j87w7TiLhNexXxF/Kpfmp4Ijrcjkw55dhNx2rxp LqDV9+6Pa9iU5ODwN4UzeFa8Z+fjDovL/b+RI8K3X+mpH847ZkIFdPIsQR7GYb1S W5xNEncH13o= =ucQD -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----