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Appendix A


PICS - Platform for Internet Content Selection

The Internet represents an amazing medium for the distribution of diverse printed material, however not all the material may be appropriate for every audience. For example, some organizations would not want their employees to view sexual material during working hours, but for others there may be legitimate reasons for doing so. The need to determine the content, but without censorship, has led to the development of the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS).

PICS establishes a convention that allows content to be rated according to categories that are specified by third party rating schemes, examples of which are SafeSurf, RASCI and ararat:

SafeSurf Rating Service:

www.classify.org/safesurf/

The Recreational Software Advisory Council:

www.rsac.org/ratingsv10.html

Ararat Software Commercial Ratings System:

www.ararat.com/ratings/ararat10.htm

The rating schemes can be diverse, for example, RASCI labels according categories like sex, violence etc., whereas the ararat tables are concerned with marketing and technical information.

WWW publishers are expected to rate their own sites, according to one or more of the rating schemes. Web browser software can read the PICS label and depending on limits specified either allow or disallow the content to be displayed or saved. It is also possible for an organization to develop its own rating service for an intranet so that material served by internal Web servers can only be viewed by the appropriate Web browsers, e.g. personnel data viewed by the Human Resources department, sales data viewed by the Sales department.

The labels can be transmitted in one of three ways:

1. Within an HTML document, specified within a <meta> tag,
2. A Web browser specifying that a label be sent with the content, in which case the label is contained in the HTPP header of the response.
3. By a labelling bureau.

To implement content selection without WEBsweeper, every Web browser would have to be configured to enable PICS and a level set for each of the categories in each of the rating schemes. As new schemes are created, then each Web browser would have to be reconfigured to adopt the new scheme. WEBsweeper offers a much simpler and effective way of maintaining and administering your 'appropriate content' policy.

Rating schemes, presently SafeSurf and RSACI, are mapped to WEBsweeper labels in a configuration file. When these labels are detected WEBsweeper stores the mapped label and value as an attribute to the data.

The WEBsweeper categories are:

WSW_AGE
values 0-4
WSW_SEX
values 0-4
WSW_LANGUAGE
values 0-4
WSW_VIOLENCE
values 0-4
WSW_OTHER	
values 0-4
WSW_LABEL
value TRUE/FALSE
 

For example, if a document contains the following label:

<META http-equiv="PICS-Label" content='(PICS-1.0

"http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" l gen true comment "RSACi North

America Server" by "eileenk@playboy.com" for "http://www.playboy.com" on

"1996.04.04T08:15-0500" exp "1997.07.01T08:15-0500" r (n 4 s 3 v 0 l 4))'>

<META http-equiv="PICS-Label" content='(PICS-1.1

"http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l gen t for "http://www.playboy.com/" r

(SS~~000 6 SS~~100 1))'>

WEBsweeper would assign the attributes:

WSW_AGE
3
WSW_SEX
4
WSW_LANGUAGE
4
WSW_VIOLENCE
0
 

The following configuration example would block the data and send a suitable message instead:

[VALLATR]
BlockSex=WSW_SEX>3

[DISPOSAL]
BlockSex=BlockContent

[BlockContent]
InformText=Transfer aborted - it contained 
unappropriate material

If a new rating scheme needs to be added then it is simply mapped in PICSMAP.CFG. Also, new WEBsweeper labels can be added or mappings can be changed. This allows your organization to maintain and administer, at a single place, a flexible content selection policy suitable for its needs.

PICSMAP.CFG

[SERVICES]
Service=RSACI,http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html
Service=SAFESURF,http://www.classify.org/safesurf

[RSACI]
;
;	RSACI rating scheme
;	-------------------
; sex
;
Map=s,0,WSW_SEX,0
Map=s,1,WSW_SEX,1
Map=s,2,WSW_SEX,2
Map=s,3,WSW_SEX,3
Map=s,4,WSW_SEX,4
;
; nudity
;
Map=n,0,WSW_SEX,0
Map=n,1,WSW_SEX,1
Map=n,2,WSW_SEX,2
Map=n,3,WSW_SEX,3
Map=n,4,WSW_SEX,4
;
; violence
;
Map=v,0,WSW_VIOLENCE,0
Map=v,1,WSW_VIOLENCE,1
Map=v,2,WSW_VIOLENCE,2
Map=v,3,WSW_VIOLENCE,3
Map=v,4,WSW_VIOLENCE,4
;
; Languge
;
Map=l,0,WSW_LANGUAGE,0
Map=l,1,WSW_LANGUAGE,1
Map=l,2,WSW_LANGUAGE,2
Map=l,3,WSW_LANGUAGE,3
Map=l,4,WSW_LANGUAGE,4


[SAFESURF]
;
; 	SafeSurf Rating scheme
;	----------------------
; Age
;
Map=SS~~000,1,WSW_AGE,0
Map=SS~~000,2,WSW_AGE,1
Map=SS~~000,3,WSW_AGE,1
Map=SS~~000,4,WSW_AGE,2
Map=SS~~000,5,WSW_AGE,2
Map=SS~~000,6,WSW_AGE,3
Map=SS~~000,7,WSW_AGE,3
Map=SS~~000,8,WSW_AGE,4
Map=SS~~000,9,WSW_AGE,4
;
; Profanity
;
Map=SS~~001,0,WSW_LANGUAGE,0
Map=SS~~001,1,WSW_LANGUAGE,0
Map=SS~~001,2,WSW_LANGUAGE,1
Map=SS~~001,3,WSW_LANGUAGE,1
Map=SS~~001,4,WSW_LANGUAGE,2
Map=SS~~001,5,WSW_LANGUAGE,2
Map=SS~~001,6,WSW_LANGUAGE,3
Map=SS~~001,7,WSW_LANGUAGE,3
Map=SS~~001,8,WSW_LANGUAGE,4
Map=SS~~001,9,WSW_LANGUAGE,4
;
; Hetrosexual Sex
;
Map=SS~~002,0,WSW_SEX,0
Map=SS~~002,1,WSW_SEX,0
Map=SS~~002,2,WSW_SEX,1
Map=SS~~002,3,WSW_SEX,1
Map=SS~~002,4,WSW_SEX,2
Map=SS~~002,5,WSW_SEX,2
Map=SS~~002,6,WSW_SEX,3
Map=SS~~002,7,WSW_SEX,3
Map=SS~~002,8,WSW_SEX,4
Map=SS~~002,9,WSW_SEX,4
;

; Homosexual Sex
;
Map=SS~~003,0,WSW_SEX,0
Map=SS~~003,1,WSW_SEX,0
Map=SS~~003,2,WSW_SEX,1
Map=SS~~003,3,WSW_SEX,1
Map=SS~~003,4,WSW_SEX,2
Map=SS~~003,5,WSW_SEX,2
Map=SS~~003,6,WSW_SEX,3
Map=SS~~003,7,WSW_SEX,3
Map=SS~~003,8,WSW_SEX,4
Map=SS~~003,9,WSW_SEX,4
;
; Nudity
;
Map=SS~~004,0,WSW_SEX,0
Map=SS~~004,1,WSW_SEX,0
Map=SS~~004,2,WSW_SEX,1
Map=SS~~004,3,WSW_SEX,1
Map=SS~~004,4,WSW_SEX,2
Map=SS~~004,5,WSW_SEX,2
Map=SS~~004,6,WSW_SEX,3
Map=SS~~004,7,WSW_SEX,3
Map=SS~~004,8,WSW_SEX,4
Map=SS~~004,9,WSW_SEX,4
;
; Violence
;
Map=SS~~005,0,WSW_VIOLENCE,0
Map=SS~~005,1,WSW_VIOLENCE,0
Map=SS~~005,2,WSW_VIOLENCE,1
Map=SS~~005,3,WSW_VIOLENCE,1
Map=SS~~005,4,WSW_VIOLENCE,2
Map=SS~~005,5,WSW_VIOLENCE,2
Map=SS~~005,6,WSW_VIOLENCE,3
Map=SS~~005,7,WSW_VIOLENCE,3
Map=SS~~005,8,WSW_VIOLENCE,4
Map=SS~~005,9,WSW_VIOLENCE,4





;  Sex-Violence-Profanity
;
Map=SS~~006,0,WSW_SEX,0
Map=SS~~006,1,WSW_SEX,0
Map=SS~~006,2,WSW_SEX,1
Map=SS~~006,3,WSW_SEX,1
Map=SS~~006,4,WSW_SEX,2
Map=SS~~006,5,WSW_SEX,2
Map=SS~~006,6,WSW_SEX,3
Map=SS~~006,7,WSW_SEX,3
Map=SS~~006,8,WSW_SEX,4
Map=SS~~006,9,WSW_SEX,4
;
;  Sex-Violence-Profanity
;
Map=SS~~006,0,WSW_VIOLENCE,0
Map=SS~~006,1,WSW_VIOLENCE,0
Map=SS~~006,2,WSW_VIOLENCE,1
Map=SS~~006,3,WSW_VIOLENCE,1
Map=SS~~006,4,WSW_VIOLENCE,2
Map=SS~~006,5,WSW_VIOLENCE,2
Map=SS~~006,6,WSW_VIOLENCE,3
Map=SS~~006,7,WSW_VIOLENCE,3
Map=SS~~006,8,WSW_VIOLENCE,4
Map=SS~~006,9,WSW_VIOLENCE,4
;
;  Sex-Violence-Profanity
;
Map=SS~~006,0,WSW_LANGUAGE,0
Map=SS~~006,1,WSW_LANGUAGE,0
Map=SS~~006,2,WSW_LANGUAGE,1
Map=SS~~006,3,WSW_LANGUAGE,1
Map=SS~~006,4,WSW_LANGUAGE,2
Map=SS~~006,5,WSW_LANGUAGE,2
Map=SS~~006,6,WSW_LANGUAGE,3
Map=SS~~006,7,WSW_LANGUAGE,3
Map=SS~~006,8,WSW_LANGUAGE,4
Map=SS~~006,9,WSW_LANGUAGE,4





;  Intolerance
;
Map=SS~~007,0,WSW_LANGUAGE,0
Map=SS~~007,1,WSW_LANGUAGE,0
Map=SS~~007,2,WSW_LANGUAGE,1
Map=SS~~007,3,WSW_LANGUAGE,1
Map=SS~~007,4,WSW_LANGUAGE,2
Map=SS~~007,5,WSW_LANGUAGE,2
Map=SS~~007,6,WSW_LANGUAGE,3
Map=SS~~007,7,WSW_LANGUAGE,3
Map=SS~~007,8,WSW_LANGUAGE,4
Map=SS~~007,9,WSW_LANGUAGE,4
;
; Drug Use
;
Map=SS~~008,0,WSW_OTHER,0
Map=SS~~008,1,WSW_OTHER,0
Map=SS~~008,2,WSW_OTHER,1
Map=SS~~008,3,WSW_OTHER,1
Map=SS~~008,4,WSW_OTHER,2
Map=SS~~008,5,WSW_OTHER,2
Map=SS~~008,6,WSW_OTHER,3
Map=SS~~008,7,WSW_OTHER,3
Map=SS~~008,8,WSW_OTHER,4
Map=SS~~008,9,WSW_OTHER,4
;
; Other Adult Themes
;
Map=SS~~009,0,WSW_OTHER,0
Map=SS~~009,1,WSW_OTHER,0
Map=SS~~009,2,WSW_OTHER,1
Map=SS~~009,3,WSW_OTHER,1
Map=SS~~009,4,WSW_OTHER,2
Map=SS~~009,5,WSW_OTHER,2
Map=SS~~009,6,WSW_OTHER,3
Map=SS~~009,7,WSW_OTHER,3
Map=SS~~009,8,WSW_OTHER,4
Map=SS~~009,9,WSW_OTHER,4





;  Gambling
;
Map=SS~~00A,0,WSW_OTHER,0
Map=SS~~00A,1,WSW_OTHER,0
Map=SS~~00A,2,WSW_OTHER,1
Map=SS~~00A,3,WSW_OTHER,1
Map=SS~~00A,4,WSW_OTHER,2
Map=SS~~00A,5,WSW_OTHER,2
Map=SS~~00A,6,WSW_OTHER,3
Map=SS~~00A,7,WSW_OTHER,3
Map=SS~~00A,8,WSW_OTHER,4
Map=SS~~00A,9,WSW_OTHER,4



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