< Complete Response Object Reference
The PICS property appends a value to the PICS label response header.
Note: This property will accept any string value, regardless of whether it is a valid PICS label or not.
What is PICS?
The PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) rating system is used to rate the content in a web site. It looks something like this:
PICS-1.1 "http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" by "[email protected]" for "http://www.somesite.com" on "2002.10.05T02:15-0800" r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0)
| Part | Description |
|---|---|
| PICS-1.1 | PICS version number |
| "http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" | Rating organization |
| by "[email protected]" | Author of the label |
| for "http://www.somesite.com" | The URL or the document that has been rated |
| on "2002.10.05T02:15-0800" | Expiration date |
| r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0) | Rating |
One of the most popular rating system is RSACi (Recreational Software Advisory Council on the Internet). RSACi rating system uses four categories: violence, nudity, sex, and language. A number between 0 to 4 is assigned to each category. 0 means that the page does not contain any potentially offensive content and 4 means that the page contains the highest levels of potentially offensive content.
| Level | Violence Rating | Nudity Rating | Sex Rating | Language Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | None of the below or sports related | None of the below | None of the below or innocent kissing; romance | None of the below |
| 1 | Injury to human being | Revealing attire | Passionate kissing | Mild expletives |
| 2 | Destruction of realistic objects | Partial nudity | Clothed sexual touching | Moderate expletives or profanity |
| 3 | Aggressive violence or death to humans | Frontal nudity | Non-explicit sexual acts | Strong language or hate speech |
| 4 | Rape or wanton, gratuitous violence | Frontal nudity (qualifying as provocative display) | Explicit sexual acts or sex crimes | Crude, vulgar language or extreme hate speech |
There are two ways you can obtain rating for your site. You can either rate your site yourself or use a rating provider, like RSACi. They'll ask you fill out some questions. After filling out the questions, you will get the rating label for your site.
Microsoft IE 3.0 and above and Netscape 4.5 and above support the content ratings. You can set the ratings in IE 5, by selecting Tools and Internet Options. Select the Content tab and click the Enable. When the rating exceeds the defined levels the Content Advisor will block the site. You can set the ratings in Netscape 4.7, by selecting Help and NetWatch.
We can use the META tag or the response.PICS property to add a rating to our site.
Syntax
response.PICS(picslabel)
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| picslabel | A properly formatted PICS label |
Examples
For an ASP file that includes:Note: Because PICS labels contain quotes, you must replace quotes with " & chr(34) & ".
<%
response.PICS("(PICS-1.1 <http://www.rsac.org/ratingv01.html>
by " & chr(34) & "[email protected]" & chr(34) &
" for " & chr(34) & "http://www.somesite.com" & chr(34) &
" on " & chr(34) & "2002.10.05T02:15-0800" & chr(34) &
" r (n 2 s 0 v 1 l 2))")
%>
the following header is added:
PICS-label:(PICS-1.1 <http://www.rsac.org/ratingv01.html>
by "[email protected]"
for "http://www.somesite.com"
on "2002.10.05T02:15-0800"
r (n 2 s 0 v 1 l 2))
< Complete Response Object Reference