“We are taking this step to back the ICRA effort to protect kids from unwanted exposure to online material intended for viewing by adults only,” Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid, said. “As an industry leader, Vivid takes seriously its responsibility to help provide tools that enable parents to monitor what is seen on home computers by their children. Our work with ICRA will label not just our website, but the webpages that contain all downloadable content produced by our company.”
Vivid’s decision to label content comes at a time of transition for Internet publishers. While the proposed top-level domain .XXX has been rejected by ICANN, some feel that it is up to adult industry to fill the void and regulate itself.
“Now that the .XXX domain has been rejected, it's more important than ever for providers of adult content to take the necessary steps to ensure their material can be accessed only by suitable users,” Stephen Balkam, CEO of ICRA, said. “We commend Vivid for taking the initiative to protect children from adult content online, and we hope that other adult content providers will follow in their footsteps.”
Vivid sites will carry the ICRA warning label, which tell filters and other blocking devices that the site contains adult material.
According to Hirsh, the decision to adopt self-regulatory standards is a follow-up to the company’s announcement of its Burn to DVD program, which allows consumers to download Vivid films to their computers and burn their own DVDs. The program, which many mainstream Hollywood studios are watching closely, officially launches today.
Believing that Vivid is among the leaders in technology innovation for both mainstream and adult content delivery, Balkam noted that Vivid’s move could signal a change for the industry. According to Balkam, the ICRA is well suited to keep pace with new technological innovations as they develop.
The ICRA is a nonprofit organization backed by many Internet players including AOL, AT&T and Microsoft. The organization has two self-described goals: to protect children from potentially harmful material while preserving free speech online.