Safety on the Web - Using Rating Software to Self-Regulate

By Jennifer Kyrnin

The Internet is a huge and largely unregulated place. This can make it scary for parents and challenging for corporations. There are many services out there that will scan Web pages for potentially offensive material, but these can often come up with incorrect interpretations.

For example, one rating service denied access to its customers to the United States White House Web site because it used the term "couple" to refer to the U.S. President and First Lady. Then there is the issue of health sites about cancer being banned because they talk about breast cancer. And so on.

What Can You Do?
As a Web developer, it is up to you to be responsible to your audience. If you run a family oriented Web site, this should be obvious, but it is also important for non-family specific sites to be responsible as well. Here are some basic guidelines to set up a responsible Web site:

• Know your audience
  As I said before, you should be aware of who is visiting your Web site. If it is a general audience, then try to be aware of what that audience might expect in terms of content.
• Provide warnings
  If you are going to include something shocking or potentially offensive on your Web pages, warn people. People could be fired if they clicked on a link that appeared innocuous (or even business related) and was taken to a pornography site, and then they might sue the Web developer who set them up. A warning is not going to stop a legitimate visitor, but it will protect the unsuspecting bystander.
• Don't play games
  This is good advice for any Web page, but it is especially true for potentially offensive Web sites. What do I mean by "games"? For example, there is a Web site where every time the browser Window is closed, a new Window opens on that same site. If that site were offensive and the person viewing it were at work, they could lose their job, and again, the developer of that site could be sued.
• Rate your site
  There are several services available that will help you do self-rating on your Web site. These services allow you to indicate the content of your site. They do not make a judgement of your site, but simply indicate, in a code, the content. Parents and businesses then use those ratings to decide which pages are acceptable to display.

Article from http://webdesign.about.com/

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