The Clinton administration & Internet industry are championing voluntary ratings for Web sites
This in-depth look at the controversy over PICS labels appeared in the October 1997 issue of The American Journalism Review.
When President Clinton challenged the high-tech industry this summer to create a “family-friendly Internet” by cleaning up cyber-smut and other offensive content, newspaper editorials applauded the president’s decision to forgo government regulation and let private industry police the Net.
Few realized that the White House’s “parental empowerment intitiative” would plunge online news publications headlong into the thorniest thicket of free-speech issues in the history of cyberspace — and lead to the news media’s rejection of the president’s proposal when it comes to their own Web sites. [Read more…] about Ratings for news sites?