It has been reported in a number of places that plans are afoot to introduce a film style ratings system to websites. This is the work of Andy Burnham the Culture Secretary who said (amongst other ramblings):
Now quite frankly IP Freely is not Mr Burnham's biggest fan at the best of times but this is really not what the doctor ordered. It seems that our Culture Secretary seems to have missed out on the internet culture as most of the issues of content regulation were discussed like 10 years ago and I fail to see how they have changed now. As for problems with copyright and libel, well what the hell do you want to do? you can't stop defamatory statements appearing online unless Mr Burnham plans to sit there and proof read EVERY SINGLE thing that is written on the net and the same with copyright infringements. Quite simply it is up to rights holders etc to keep on top of what is happening on the net, whilst this may not seem just there is no alternative. The main issues Mr Burnham should concern himself with are accountabilityand identifiability (is that even a word?) but he never was one to look at problems logically.
Anyway back to the (main) purpose of this post and that is the proposed rating system. If you want your own rating system check out this where you will find that IP Freely is:
"If you look back at the people who created the internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that Governments couldn’t reach. I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now. It’s true across the board in terms of content, harmful content, and copyright. Libel is [also] an emerging issue.
There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical.
This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it.”
Now quite frankly IP Freely is not Mr Burnham's biggest fan at the best of times but this is really not what the doctor ordered. It seems that our Culture Secretary seems to have missed out on the internet culture as most of the issues of content regulation were discussed like 10 years ago and I fail to see how they have changed now. As for problems with copyright and libel, well what the hell do you want to do? you can't stop defamatory statements appearing online unless Mr Burnham plans to sit there and proof read EVERY SINGLE thing that is written on the net and the same with copyright infringements. Quite simply it is up to rights holders etc to keep on top of what is happening on the net, whilst this may not seem just there is no alternative. The main issues Mr Burnham should concern himself with are accountabilityand identifiability (is that even a word?) but he never was one to look at problems logically.
Anyway back to the (main) purpose of this post and that is the proposed rating system. If you want your own rating system check out this where you will find that IP Freely is:
Just don't click on the link though as it takes you to a dating site (unless of course your looking for lurv).
What do you guys think? Do you think that a rating system is a good idea? Or a restriction too far?
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