"Safesearch" and Webmasters Use Of Website Meta Tags

One of the options many search engines offer is a "safesearch" option to block known pornography from being displayed. This option is typically toggled on an "advanced" or "preferences" control page of the search engine. It only limits the results displayed on that engine, but is a way to limit the likelyhood of inappropriate content being displayed while helping students use that search engine.

It would be easier to avoid inappropriate content if all webmasters would utilize the standardized metatags for marking content - either using Internet Content Rating Association or Platform for Internet Content Selection coding to define who their audience might be. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has an Internet Option for limiting the display of Internet Content according to these codes, but if employed, most useful sites (which are not rated) are not displayed.

-DD