The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) and the Website Rating and Advisory Council (WRAAC) have announced that WRAAC will use ICRA’s labeling standards to support its ParentalControl Bar software. The ParentalControl Bar is a free browser that works as a filtering tool, enabling parents to control the content their children view online. WRAAC developed the software and designed it in accordance with the final recommendations of the 2000 COPA Commission Report.
ICRA is a nonprofit organization that seeks to protect children from potentially objectionable material while preserving free speech on the Internet. In addition to using ICRA’s labeling system, WRAAC is making a generous donation to support ICRA’s mission.
The WRAAC, a nonprofit entity, was formed this year by a team of Internet and IT professionals dedicated to delivering free, effective solutions that allow parents and guardians to control children’s online internet activity reliably.
WRAAC 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 powerful, established labeling standard with our robust, free parental filtering software,” says 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.
“The importance of Internet safety cannot be underestimated,” says Stephen Balkam, chief executive officer 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. Together, we can help make the Internet a safer place for children.”
The ICRA is supported by various online industry players: AOL, AT&T, British Telecom, CompTIA, Microsoft, Madesafe, GSM Association, Solarsoft, T-Online, and Verizon.
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.
“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,” says Young.
The WRAAC says that to date, 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.
