opinion

Label with RTA or else!

ASACP create the Restriced to Adults ("RTA") label for websites as a response to congressional pressure on the Adult Industry to self-regulate, or "they will do it for you," was the message coming back from the Senate Judiciary Committee Paul Cambria testified at.

The RTA label looks like this: <meta name="RATING" content="RTA-5042-1996-1400-1577-RTA">

It is to be placed in the HEAD section of every page.

With the use of technology, the web page could be blocked from viewing. This would mean an individual who chooses not to want to see porn for themselves or for a child, can do so. People who want to block porn are not porn consumers.

The long standing filtering mechanism has been ICRA, who has recently changed their name to Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), where they require you to register your domains and your email address with them.

Besides all the various reasons to label your websites with RTA, there is one that I will focus on here.

If you don't label, it's like not voting. Someone else will decide your fate.

There are bills now introduced in Congress that mandate labeling, and while they have not specific mentioned ICRA, it can be safe to assume that ICRA has its lobbying efforts on high.

You might be thinking, if its a law to label and ICRA is the selected filter, what's the big deal? I'll just label with ICRA.

The difference is that you could have a chance to determine what YOU, as a member of the adult industry, feel is appropriate technology to accomplish the filtering goals. That YOU can decide the solution based upon industry friendly implementation.

If you don't "vote" to label with RTA, then you'll let others (ie. Congress and lobbyists) do the "voting" for you.

The RTA label was created by the industry, for the industry. Learn more at rtalabel.org

Fight the labelization without representation!

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