computer science

Internet Content Rating Association

Internet Content Rating Association is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Internet Content Rating Association rather than just read about it. In short: Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) was an international non-profit organization with offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. In October 2010, the ICRA rating system, and the organization, was discontinued.

Key takeaways

Internet Content Rating Association belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Internet Content Rating Association to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Internet Content Rating Association from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) was an international non-profit organization with offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. In October 2010, the ICRA rating system, and the organization, was discontinued. Its mission was to help users find the content they want, to trust what they find and to filter out what they do not want for themselves or for their children. ICRA also acted as a forum through which both political and technical infrastructure are defined to help shape the way that the World Wide Web and content distribution channels work.

Methods ICRA created a content description system which allowed webmasters and digital content creators to self-label their content in categories such as nudity, sex, language (profanity etc.), violence, other potentially undesired material and online interactivity such as social networking and chat. There are context variables such as art, medicine and news—for example, a piece of content or site can be described as having depictions of nudes, but they are in an artistic context. A key point is that ICRA does not rate internet content, nor do it make value judgements about sites – the content providers self-label, and then parents and other concerned adults make a value judgement as to what is or is not appropriate content. The labelling was done using a web-based questionnaire. The content creators checked which of the elements in the questionnaire are present or absent from their Web sites, and a small file is automatically generated using the RDF format, which is then linked to the content on one or more domains. Formerly, the system was based on PICS. Users could then use content filtering software to censor various types of content. One such application, ICRAplus, was maintained by ICRA itself. ICRA also had a validator which tested all versions of ICRA and old RSACi labels. The content descriptions were revised in 2005 to enable easier application to a wide range of digital content, not just websites. The ICRA also intended to launch a service to verify the accuracy of ICRA labels and to provide this information to third-party tools and services, such as search engines. Alternative labelling projects include Quatro, an EU-funded project which integrates content labels with quality and trust marks, and its successor, QuatroPlus.

Members ICRA's corporate members included: AOL, British Telecom, Microsoft, T-Online, Verizon, Cable & Wireless, Demon Internet, IBM, Bertelsmann Foundation, Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), and Software and Information Industry Association. ICRA has been supported by the European Union's Internet Action Plan and various trusts and foundations.

Discontinuation In 2007, Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) was created and subsumed the ICRA and its day-to-day operations. In October 2010, the ICRA labeling engine was discontinued by FOSI. Additionally, FOSI has withdrawn all support for the ICRA rating system and taken down all documentation for labeling websites with ICRA ratings. The reason is that the ICRA label failed to gain widespread acceptance. The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection launched the launched the RTA ("Restricted to Adults") website labeling system in 2006, which is still in wide use.

See also Entertainment Software Rating Board RSACi Mobile software content rating system

References

External links ICRA Homepage Archived 2007-07-24 at the Wayback Machine ICRA Vocabulary

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Internet Content Rating Association

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Internet Content Rating Association claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Internet Content Rating Association before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Internet Content Rating Association ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Internet Content Rating Association

In research: Internet Content Rating Association appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Internet Content Rating Association in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Internet Content Rating Association is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1999 establishments in Washington, D.C., 2010 disestablishments in Washington, D.C., Content-control software, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Internet Content Rating Association outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Internet Content Rating Association in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Internet Content Rating Association means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Internet Content Rating Association out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Internet Content Rating Association in simple terms?

Why does Internet Content Rating Association matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Internet Content Rating Association?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Internet Content Rating Association.