• Reuters, Monday, December 29, 2008 11 AM

The British government is looking into rating Web sites in a similar manner to the way movies are rated by the Motion Picture Association of America in the U.S. Britain's Minister For Culture Andy Burnham told The Daily Telegraph that the government was planning to negotiate age ratings for English language sites with the administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

"The more we seek international solutions to this stuff -- the U.K. and the U.S. working together -- the more that an international norm will set an industry norm," Burnham said. "This is an area that is really now coming into full focus."

One possibility, he said, is forcing ISPs to offer services where the only Web sites accessible are those deemed suitable for children. Burnham claimed this was different than censorship: "This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it."

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