New website, but what is it rated?

In 1922, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was formed. Its international counterpart the Motion Picture Association (MPA) was founded in 1945. Together they "serve as the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries, domestically through the MPAA and internationally through the MPA. Today, these associations represent not only the world of theatrical film, but serve as leader and advocate for major producers and distributors of entertainment programming for television, cable, home video and future delivery systems not yet imagined." (1) Starting in November 1968, the MPAA started to rate films based on the films content. Today we have the ratings of G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17.

In 1997, the TV Parental Guidelines was enacted by the FCC to provide ratings to TV content and applies to most broadcast and cable programming. It was intended to work with the V-chip that was built into televisions after 2000 to allow parents to block content on their TVs. Ratings include: TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA.

As we see different forms of media have provided a rating system to allow parents and individuals to get an understanding of what the content is in the. I have given examples of different forms of "visual" media. Would it be too much to ask that a ranking system be put in place for the Internet? In order to rate the Internet a few questions need to be answered first: 1) who would do the rating, 2) who would enforce it, and 3) how is it useful? For two of those questions, I think the FCC would be the answer.

The FCC would provide guidelines on what types of images, words, or content would qualify for each ranking. They would also be responsible for handing out fines to the website owners and web hosting companies that provide space for the websites. The FCC could also work in conjunction with other governments to create a global standard of website ratings.

Once websites have been rated (within a reasonable timeframe), parents or other individuals could them block certain rated material from entering their homes. This would allow parents to protect their child from content they find unsuitable. It would be similar to how the V-chip works.

There are some potential problems with this idea. First, how long and how much would it cost to implement this rating system? Who is to interrupt who certain content is to be ranked? What is one country doesn't follow the ranking system? Those are some of the areas that need to be worked out, but they are manageable.

I understand that that is only a brief list of potential problems and someone is always going to find a way around it, but at least it is a start. It isn't a new idea. They have done it with movies. They have done it with television. Why can't they do it with the internet?

(1) http://www.mpaa.org/AboutUs.asp