PICS - Is PICS the devil?

~terry Fri, Feb 20, 1998 (16:04) seed

PICS is an infrastructure for associating labels (metadata) with Internet content. It was originally designed to help parents and teachers control what children access on the Internet, but it also facilitates other uses for labels, including code signing and privacy. PICS is a platform on which other rating services and filtering software have been built. Parents who are interested in finding filtering software or ISPs that offer filtering will probably want to consult http://www.netparents.org For introductory materials: Technology Inventory: http://www.research.att.com/~lorrie/pubs/tech4kids/ Lorrie Cranor and Paul Resnick http://www.sciam.com/0397issue/0397resnick.html Filtering Information on the Internet Paul Resnick. Scientific American, March 1997, pp. 106-108. http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/pics/intfree/faq.htm PICS and Intellectual Freedom FAQ. Paul Resnick.

~terry Fri, Feb 20, 1998 (16:07) #1

Is PICS the devil? Does it do something to the architecture of the web that makes it easier for some folks to control the architecture of the web, is the question that Professor Weinberg asks. Searching and blocking are two sides of a coin, and Winberg doesn't like blocking when other people are designing it for him.

~terry Wed, Mar 4, 1998 (07:16) #2

Danielle Gallo: Following the Thursday evening dinner reception and entertaining speech by Nicholas Johnson, there were a number of BoFs held. I attended the GILC (Global Internet Liberty Campaign) BoF. This informal discussion group featured Mark Rotenberg from GILC (http://www.gilc.org) and Barry Steinhardt, counsel to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation, http://www.eff.org). Among other things, GILC has argued against PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection). The BoF had a surprise element in the attendance of Paul Resnick, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Information (http://www.si.umich.edu/). Resnick is one of the developers of PICS. The discussion became a preview of the panel on the neutrality of technology and the question of 'is PICS the devil?'.

~terry Wed, Mar 4, 1998 (07:20) #3

Lorrie Cranor: Now, for the $64,000 question. Is PICS the devil? I don=92t think a definite answer surfaced. Panelists included Paul Resnick and Andrew Shapiro. Shaprio was highly opposed to PICS because it can be used to facilitate censorship. Resnick rebutted by stating that tools for censorship already existed before PICS. This question and answer period was also lively, including many comments directed at Resnick. Personally, I feel that PICS has provided a useful starting point and foundation for the selection of Internet content.