Netscape Will Add Content Controls
Moving to satisfy a White House quest for tools to help parents screen objectionable material on computer networks, the nation’s leading maker of navigational software for the Internet is expected to announce today that it will incorporate content controls in its new products.
The move by Netscape Communications Corp. comes as President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore meet with representatives of about 30 business, educational and parent groups. The administration has done an about-face on how to address public concern over children’s use of personal computers to view Internet sites that depict graphic sex and violence.
The White House, buoyed by its recent high-profile bid to get the television industry to adopt a ratings system, had initially talked of regulating Internet content by developing a computer chip similar to the electronic device that television set makers will be required to install next year so parents can block objectionable shows.
But it has backed down from that approach and will concentrate on encouraging Netscape and other companies to perfect existing industry tools to screen content and address concerns about Internet privacy and safety.
Although archrival Microsoft Corp. already markets a navigational browser that gives users some ability to screen Web sites for language, nudity, sex and violence, Netscape’s embrace of the technology is a significant victory for the Clinton administration because Netscape’s browsers are used by more than two-thirds of consumers who surf the Internet.
“We’ve made a commitment to the White House to put [content screening] in the next version of our client software,” said Peter Harter, global public policy counsel for Netscape. “We are encouraged that the administration is supporting a technology that gives parents greater control over what their children can see” on the Internet.
Netscape executives would not give a date for implementing the filtering technology, but experts say it will probably take the company at least until the fall.
A top Clinton administration official said the Netscape offer was just one of several commitments secured from the computer industry and directed at furthering a White House goal of “creating a safe and educational environment for children on the Internet.”
Participants are expected to focus their attention on software that searches the Internet for certain keywords, such as “sex” or “bomb,” as indicators of objectionable content, as well as expanding a fledgling Internet ratings technology called Platform for Internet Content Selection, or PICS.
PICS was started two years ago by the industry to provide a uniform format to label content on the Internet. Sites can be labeled by the publisher or by third parties, such as educational or religious groups, based on their standards.
The effort to expand PICS and software filtering, however, is encountering resistance from some participants and facing a collision with a freewheeling global computer network whose rapid growth and basic design make it difficult, if not impossible, for any one individual, group or nation to control.
The American Library Assn., which has been invited to today’s meeting, passed a resolution last week declaring that “the use of filtering software by libraries to block access to constitutionally protected speech violates the Bill of Rights.”
