Key Solutions

The most important aspect of protecting children rests with parents and educators. If loving guidance from parents is lacking, then no initiate will serve its intended purpose. It is also a parental responsibility to create a safe environment for children on and off the net. (See the "Relevant Links" section to help you consider filtering options), Know where and when your children have Internet access. An open and honest parent-child communication is essential. Place the computer in a highly visible place in your home. Know where else they enjoy access. The dilemma is that many children surf the Web with open access and no supervision or even guidance.

The International Children's Initiative

In short: "Any web page that provides material, or access to material, that can be deemed harmful or inappropriate to minors, has to include an identifying meta tag as part of the code page. The meta tag will be specific depending on the category of content provided." That's it, in short.

This solution will:

• Protect Freedom of Speech (The tag will not be visible to the web surfer. It is machine readable. Internet users wishing to access all materials available on the web, will be unencumbered to do so, just like now)
• Protect Children From Inappropriate Content (With materials tagged that are inappropriate to minors, it will enable parents and schools to set up their browsers to avoid access to such sites. Appropriate sites will not be excluded as it often happens with filtering services.)
  

What is The Anticipated Result?

From the perspective of those providing content on the Web:
For argument's sake, let's assume this initiative becomes widely accepted. Content providers to the web would not be restricted in any way due to this initiative, even if they choose to post offensive materials. Those who provide material that fall in the category of material that can be considered as potentially harmful to minors, as described above, will be obliged have to include a meta tag on all the web pages concerned to identify the type of content that the page provides. This tag will never be visible on the screen, but the browser will be able understand the nature of the content being accessed.

From the perspective of a web surfer:
If the user wants open access (i.e. no restrictions on viewing anything available on the Web), that would be as accessible as now. That user's freedom would be unaffected. Maybe you can compare this measure to the warning label on tobacco products. If you don't mind, it's all the same to you. The difference is this: Potentially harmful material to children would now be tagged (as mentioned earlier, a meta tag is not rendered on the screen by the browser--but the browser does read the tag though). Such a tag provides much greater freedom to those who want to avoid offensive material. With these pages identified, it is possible to set the preferences in your web browser not to access such pages. This measure will significantly help eliminate the unintended access of offensive content. This will also help parents create a safer web surfing environment for their children.

What is A Meta Tag?

As you surf the web, you will never see a meta tag. It is part of the HTML code that tells your browser what type of document you are looking at, like if the page is written in French or English.

At the top of an HTML page you can insert info about the page, using a meta tag to help search engines understand the content of your page. The meta tag helps the search engine index the page appropriately. Let's say you have a page about candle supplies, your meta tags might look something like this:

<META Name="description" Content="candle making supplies, wax, fragrance, molds">
<META Name="keywords"    Content="candle supplies, candle making, wax, wick, scent, etc.">

It is at this level that a meta tag can be inserted that will identify the content of the web page if it is regarded as possibly harmful to minors. Exactly what such a tag should contain is currently being researched. The World Wide Web Consortium has developed an implementation to address this need. (See: Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)  --  www.w3.org/PICS/ )

Tell Me More
Please read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section or read the page STEP THREE.

Last updated: Aug, 2005