Could governments encourage or impose receiver-based controls? Does PICS make it easier or harder for governments to do so?
Yes. A government could try to assume any or all of the six roles described above, although some controls might be harder than others to enforce. As described below, governments could assume some of these roles even without PICS, while other roles would be harder to assume if PICS had not been introduced. It’s important to note that W3C does not endorse any particular government policy. The purpose of this FAQ is to explain the range of potential policies and to explore some of the impacts of those policies on both the climate of intellectual freedom and the technical infrastructure of the World Wide Web. Potential government policies: • Set labeling vocabulary and criteria. A government could impose a labeling vocabulary and require all publishers (in the government’s jurisdiction) to label their own materials according to that vocabulary. Alternatively, a government might try to achieve the same effect by encouraging an industry self-policing organization to choose a vocabulary and r
