The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) and the Website Rating and Advisory Council (WRAAC) today announced that WRAAC will use ICRA’s labeling standards to support its ParentalControl Bar software; a free, browser filtering tool that enables parents to control the content their children view online.
ICRA is a non-profit organization that exists to protect children from potentially objectionable material while preserving free speech on the Internet. In addition to using ICRA’s labeling system, WRAAC is also making a donation to support ICRA’s mission.
“The importance of Internet safety cannot be underestimated,” said Stephen Balkam, CEO of ICRA. “We are delighted that WRAAC recognizes the need for reliable parental controls and is using ICRA’s labeling technology to support the ParentalControl Bar.
WRAAC said that it supports ICRA’s long standing belief and founding principle that self-regulation leads to the best balance between the free flow of digital content, the protection of children from potentially harmful material and the free expression rights of content providers.
“By becoming an ICRA licensee, WRAAC has merged ICRA’s labeling standard with our free parental filtering software,” said Jeff Young, president of WRAAC. “We sought and selected ICRA’s system as our labeling system of choice, because of its neutral and objective standard. The result is a major step forward in empowering parents to be able to control the types of Internet content they deem suitable for the home.”
In May, WRAAC released version 4.0 of the ParentalControl Bar for use in conjunction with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. WRAAC plans to release versions of the software for use with Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple Computer’s Safari browsers beginning in August 2006.
Although still in beta testing, more than 4,000 homes have downloaded and installed the ParentalControl Bar in the last month. To date, the companies said that feedback from users has been positive. Additionally, several providers of adult content have provided links on their warning pages to facilitate downloading the new ParentalControl Bar software in addition to other filtering software programs currently in use.
“Now that the ICRA label standard and the WRAAC filtering system have come together, we intend to focus on encouraging the major computer and browser software companies to consider integrating this solution into computers before they reach the home,” added Young.
