The Digital Media Project

Source

Craig Schultz

Title

TRU #18 to assign content ratings

No.

040115schultz02

Name:

Craig Schultz

Affiliation/additional information:

Multimedia Architectures

Date submitted:

2004/01/15

#

Criteria

Description

1.

Name of TRU

Content ratings

2.

Summary description of TRU

An individual, organization, industry or government can apply a rating on some applicable scale to digital media.

3.

Use records of TRU

Movies, songs, television broadcasts and even entire television channels and even software will many times have a rating applied based on some generally accepted, understood and published scale.

4.

Nature of TRU

There are many different rating systems/scales, for many different type of digital media.  In some cases they are informative only and in some cases they are mandated.  An example of the former is the rating system used in video game software in which it is advised that a person under a given age not have access.  An example of the former is the ratings applied to movies in which a person under a given age shall not have access.

5.

Benefits of TRU

Users can more easily determine the suitability of digital media they or their family members access.

6.

Possible digital support

Metadata carried in the digital media declaring the rating applied as well as the rating scale used, along with metadata useful for the verification of both.

7.

Requirements

The ability to provide for and contain within digital media, verifiable metadata containing a rating as well as the system on which the rating was made.

8.

References