They are concerned that full participation in a ratings system would be achievable only if governments require it. Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union, considers voluntary ratings the first step toward censorship. The Internet is nothing like other media. The content is abundant, dynamic and defiant of easy classification. And the problem with voluntary ratings isn't so much getting children and adult sites to participate.
Some Web sites dismiss the whole idea of ratings as American-centric.
European societies, for instance, tend to worry more about violence than nudity, such that Danish photo albums online may routinely feature nude family members. Two ad hoc groups came forward with rating systems based on those standards. SafeSurf, founded by two people looking for alternatives to government regulation, lets sites rate content for nudity, violence and other topics on a scale of 0 to 9. The Recreational Software Advisory Council, or RSAC, a group that had developed a rating system for video games, uses 0 to 4. Parents can activate either system by adjusting preference settings in Microsoft's Internet Explorer or through the NetWatch feature under Netscape's help menu.