Wednesday, May 27, 2009    Text size: 

The U.S. Senate has designated June as National Internet Safety Month, recognizing the need for measures that organizations, web designers and families can take to protect children online — and the adult entertainment industry has responded to these needs, when in 2006 ASACP launched the Restricted To Adults (RTA) website label — an effort which it has followed up with today's launch of RTA Verified.

According to the Association, the basic RTA label is a unique string of "meta data" which can be inserted into the computer code of any website, enabling parental filtering software to recognize the tag and thus prevent children from viewing adult content. RTA is the adult entertainment industry's initiative to protect children from viewing content that is age-inappropriate, and was developed by ASACP out of a need for an easy to use and internationally recognized label that designates content for adults only.

"RTA Verified confirms that your websites have been properly labeled with RTA," stated an Association release. "RTA Verified adds an extra level of precaution, removes the guesswork, and demonstrates social responsibility."

While RTA is free, the RTA Verified service will cost a small fee; however it is simple, effective and inexpensive; and lets you and your visitors know that your websites are properly labeled with the Restricted to Adults website labeling system.

"No one wants a mandatory, complicated, and potentially expensive website labeling system," ASACP CEO Joan Irvine said. "This is why ASACP worked with the adult industry to create the Restricted To Adults website label."

"While RTA has become the industry standard for self-regulation, many webmasters have asked us how they know they are using RTA to their maximum benefit," Irvine added. "ASACP has answered this call with RTA Verified, now webmasters can rest assured they are properly labeled with RTA and are doing the most they can to protect children online from age-inappropriate content."

RTA Verified is priced at $10 annually for one to 10 domains plus $1 for each additional domain; or $100 annually for unlimited domains. However RTA Verified is provided free to ASACP members and sponsors.

"Also, there are many other types of sites and services that are not appropriate for minors such as dating, gambling, and alcohol just to name a few," Irvine told XBIZ. "ASACP is in discussions with a few of these industries about including RTA in their Best Practices and asking their members to adopt the use of the RTA meta data."

"Since RTA is recognized by most parental control software, major operating systems and browsers, and even a number of the mobile carriers, this would rapidly spread the use of RTA and give parents the tools to prevent their children from accessing most age-inappropriate content whether on the internet or mobile," she concluded. "RTA Verified is the first application in future enhancements for RTA which will be called RTA Plus."

Founded in 1996, the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating child pornography from the Internet. ASACP also works to help parents prevent children from viewing age-inappropriate material online.