Learning About Internet Security
RSACi Parental Control
for Web Browsers
Filtering web site content is a concern of both
parent and IS professionals. If you use one of the newer versions of web
browser, and you have enabled the built-in parental control filtering, odds are
that you will be using the RSACi web content filter.
RSACi (Recreational Software Advisory Council on
the Internet) is a voluntary non-profit web content rating service located in
Washington, D.C. Web site owners visit the RSACi web site at http://www.icra.org
and complete an online form that allows them to rate the content of their web
site based on a variety of criteria including pornography, violence, and family
content. After confirming the web site's content, a snippet of code is sent back
to the web site owner to include in their web pages. This RSACi code is read by
the parental controls security built into your web browser and then used to
filter out undesirable web sites.
Web sites using the RSACi rating service will
usually include an image on their web page(s) indicating their association to
RSACi, but you are not required to do so. RSACi rating is a free service.
Contributions of $35.00 or greater are accepted and donors will get to have
their web site listed on the RSACi web site.
How effective is RSACi protection?
That depends of several different factors. First and foremost, the web browser
must have the RSACi protection enabled in order for it to work. Second,
webmasters must have properly applied the RSACi coding to their web pages. And
third, you must configure the correct levels of protection that you expect to
receive from RSACi in your web browser.
Drawbacks to using the RSACi protection include
the following:
- Enabling RSACi protection in your web browser may cause some
of your saved "Favorite" web site links to be removed. If a Favorite
Link leads to a non-rated web site, the protection will remove the link from
your saved list.
- Harmless web sites that do not use RSACi rating will
suddenly become unavailable.
- Web pages that do not include the RSACi coding,
even on a rated web site, will not be available.
- Disreputable web site owners
can change the content of a web page after receiving a favorable rating and
continue to use the now outdated rating.
The RSACi code looks like this:
<meta http-equiv="PICS-Label" content='(PICS-1.1 "http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html"
l gen true comment "RSACi North America Server" for
"http://afirst.com" on "1998.06.23T17:17-0800" r (n 0 s 0 v
0 l 0))'>
Different coding is generated for an entire web site, individual web pages, or
portions of a web site.
In conclusion, although RSACi provides basic
protection, you will probably wish to use a more sophisticated filtering system
to provide stronger and more customized filtering. If you own a web site, you
would be wise to apply for, and use, this free service on your web site.
Next Month's Topic: Age
Verification Services
By Steve
Duell
ASIS SFBA Webmaster
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