Does PICS encourage individual controls rather than government controls?
Yes; for example, a national proxy-server/firewall combination that blocks access to a government-provided list of prohibited sites does not depend on interoperability of labels and filters provided by different organizations. While such a setup could use PICS-compatible technology, a proprietary technology provided by a single vendor would be just as effective. Other controls, based on individual or local choices, benefit more from mixing and matching filtering software and labels that come from different sources, which PICS enables. Thus, there should be some substitution of individual or local controls for centralized controls, although it is not obvious how strong this substitution effect will be. In Europe initial calls for centralized controls gave way to government reports calling for greater reliance on individual recipient controls; the end results of these political processes, however, are yet to be determined.
