WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee is giving the communications industry a chance to come up with a voluntary system to help parents control content over all media platforms-including mobile phones-or lawmakers warned Tuesday they may legislate a solution.
After conducting a daylong forum on media decency, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, told reporters he hopes the communications industry can come up with something so lawmakers don’t have to get officially involved.
“I would prefer to try and work out a voluntary ratings system … to find some way to meet the demands of the family community without getting to the mandates. If that doesn’t work, then we have to find a way to make the mandate effective,” said Stevens. “As long as we’re dealing with the problem, we ought to see how much of it we can cover and how much could be covered by a voluntary arrangement such as the Motion Picture Association of America developed and has been successful. I think there’s a coming together in terms of that type of a standard.”
Stevens said that while it is unclear that the Senate Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over Internet content, it certainly has jurisdiction over Internet content received using a mobile phone.
“Mobile phones would be within our jurisdiction. I’m not sure the Internet is. But, very clearly, the Internet is coming up along the line here and it’s going to be one of the things that, I think, before long, the way I understand it, we’re going to get more complaints about the Internet than anything else. It’s just absolutely being abused by pornographers and I think the Internet itself has to find some way to come up with a solution to that too. These people who are handling access to the Internet in the long run are going to suffer if they continue to allow that kind of access to the Internet,” said Stevens.
Wireless industry trade association CTIA last month released the details of its classification system, which will divide content into Restricted Carrier Content-available to those 18 years and older-and Generally Acceptable Carrier Content. CTIA has been working with the Federal Communications Commission on the issue since the beginning of the year when RCR Wireless News first reported that the wireless association was looking at ways to pre-empt content regulation.
Under CTIA’s plan, content would be classified using the same criteria currently used for rating movies, TV, music and games. This criteria has been made available to the carriers. The content would not be “rated” per se because the ratings are proprietary, but the top level-for example R for movies or M for TV-would be restricted.
The daylong forum revealed that only the MPAA’s movie rating system seems to be totally understood by the American public, and that if any ratings system is to be effective it needs to be simple. The main force behind that system, former MPAA president Jack Valenti, came out of retirement to tell the forum that simplicity is the answer. “If you don’t make things simple they are not going to use it,” said Valenti.
The wireless industry believes its guidelines-using the ratings system-are ahead of the game. CTIA President Steve Largent participated in the morning half of the forum.
CTIA developed its system to “control the content that today’s wireless devices can and will access,” Largent told lawmakers. “Our guidelines were developed to equip and inform parents.”
After the forum, CTIA spokesman Joe Farren told RCR Wireless News that since other platforms are more widespread there was a focus on those areas.
“The forum was almost exclusively focused on broadcast TV, cable and radio,” said Farren. Mobile-phone content “is not something that has reached mass adoption and we have already come out with guidelines.”
Farren said CTIA would continue in any discussions regarding an industry-wide ratings system. Stevens indicated he hopes the parties will come together again in December.
In September, CTIA’s board of directors unanimously voted to support a two-phase program for content self-regulation. The first phase will classify content, while the second phase would provide guidelines for individual carriers to implement access controls.
The system is effective immediately and CTIA stressed that no restricted carrier-controlled content will be available until carriers independently develop ways to make blocking possible.
It will still be possible to get access to any lawful content available on the public Internet if access to the Internet is available on the phone. For example, if a user of any age is using a device that allows them to surf the World Wide Web, it will still be possible to get access to what some may consider inappropriate content.
