Explanation of the PICS Rating System in Internet Explorer 3.0

ID: Q154356

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 for Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

When you try to view a Web page in Internet Explorer 3.0, you may receive the following message:

   Content Advisor

   Sorry! Content Advisor will not allow you to see this site.
   This page may contain some or all of the following:
   RSACi: Language - Level 4:   Explicit or crude language

NOTE: The last line in the message lists any offensive content.

CAUSE

The Ratings system has been enabled, or the Ratings system is set to require a supervisor's password for a page that does not have a rating.

RESOLUTION

To work around this behavior, use any of the following methods. To access the options listed in these methods, click Options on the View menu, and then click Advanced:

Turn off the Ratings system by clicking Disable Ratings and typing your password.
Adjust the level of the label for the rating in question by clicking Settings and then choosing the appropriate level.
You can also adjust the level that Internet Explorer allows you to see. For example:
```
      RSACi: Nudity - Level 4: Provocative frontal nudity
      RSACi: Sex - Level 3: Non-explicit sexual touching
      RSACi: Language - Level 4: Explicit or crude language
```
This means you would need to set the level for Nudity to 4, Sex to 3, and Language to 4 in order to view this page if the Ratings system is enabled.
Enable the "Users can see sites which have no ratings" option on the General tab.
Leaving this option disabled means that if a page does not have a rating, you will not be able to view it without the supervisor pass- word. The "Supervisors can type a password to allow users to view restricted content" option is used to allow the supervisor to type his or her password when a page is accessed that either has a rating higher than Internet Explorer is set to allow or has no rating at all and the option to view non-rated pages is not set.
If you want to never be prompted for a non-rated page, enable the "Users can see sites which have no ratings" option.

NOTE: You need the supervisor password in order to disable or modify the Ratings system.

If you disable the Ratings system, Internet Explorer does not look for the tag that specifies the ratings.

MORE INFORMATION

Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard for content labeling. PICS is essentially a language for creating a ratings system. Each bit of rating information is called a label. Internet Explorer supports obtaining label information from the following locations:

Within the HTML document as a special HTML tag.
Within the HTTP headers (the server must put them there).
From an independent Web server equipped to distribute them.

Web document authors are not required to apply any rating method to Web pages. Internet Explorer uses the RSACi.rat file to obtain the rating for the contents of the page. "RSAC" is the acronym for Recreational Software Advisory Council.

If you choose to use a different ratings system, you need to copy the .rat file to your hard disk and add it to the Internet Explorer ratings list. To do so, click Options on the View menu, click the Security tab, click Settings, type the supervisor password, click the Advanced tab, and click Ratings Systems for a list of currently installed ratings systems.

Internet Explorer installs the RSACi.rat file in the Windows\System folder. Click Add to open the folder in which the new ratings system file is located. Click the new file and click Open.

For a list of how RSACi.rat views the individual labels, click Options on the View menu, click the Security tab, click Settings, click the Ratings tab, and then click More Info.

KBCategory: kbusage KBSubcategory: win95 msiew95 Additional reference words: 3.00 win95 ie3 ie30 parents control

Keywords          : win95 msiew95 
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: March 20, 1999