Web Filter Will Block Sites to Protect Children

A nonprofit group aiming to protect children from unsavory material on the Net has introduced a free Web browsing filter that blocks access to sites promoting, among other things, sex, drugs and hate speech.

The initiative comes from the Internet Content Rating Assn., a small organization with an ambitious goal.

Since the mid-1990s, the ICRA, which has offices in the United States and Britain, has been working to establish the Internet’s first voluntary rating system for all major Web sites.

The ICRA rating is not carried on the site, but inside its source code, thus making it easier for filtering software to detect and block out, as in the case of adult sites.

More than 50,000 Web sites have volunteered to have their sites classified under the ICRA system, from the tame Yahooligans portal for children to the racy Playboy.com.