The labelling tools, together with your web browser, enable you to set allowed levels for labelled sites. Access to sites which are labelled at a higher level than you have allowed will then be blocked. Some browsers also allow you to restrict access to unlabelled sites. However, most web sites are unlabelled. PICS was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium as a technical platform to attach labels to Internet sites, which can then be read by most browsers.
Labels can come from different sources including the content developers or third parties.
Three well know PICS based labelling tools are RSACi , SafeSurf and Net Shepherd . Safe Zones Safe zones are secure networks, separated from the rest of the Internet, which are suitable for younger children. They are often provided on a subscription basis, such as the Australian based zones of Kidz.net and Kahootz or by commercial sites, such as Disney Blast . In addition, some of the larger Internet service providers, such as AOL , have children's zones which allow parents to limit their children's online access to those zones. Under the Internet Industry Association's code of practice, Internet service providers are required to provide their customers with an approved filter.