web rating adopts

[fairyrune]

so in my browsing, i have seen these web ratings pop up every now and then. often it's in the form of the famous web rating pandas. i'm wondering, though - are there any other similar web rating adopts, or web rating stamps that are available?

i'd like to have one, but i am not a fan of the pandas for a few reasons. i may actually make my own as an alternative, but i have no idea what they'd be. the idea of combining an adopt with a function like this (in this case, letting people know who your site is suitable for) is pretty neat.

[Dan Q]

I'm not aware of any others that aren't just generic (and possibly copyright-violating) reuse of iconography from the BBFC, MPAA, ESRB, PEGI, etc.

Age-rating for websites is a funny business. It really ought to be so easy for sites to self-declare an age rating and for parental controls to respect that (and/or content filters to "warn" users, even if they're permitted to pass through). And yet every time somebody comes up with a standard, it never reaches critical mass. age.xml was supposed to solve for it. RTA was supposed to solve it (for "adult" sites, at least). <meta name="rating"> was supposed to solve it. And nowadays we're talking about shifting things client-side so the browser can send a Prefer: safe (or similar) header and then the filtering can happen on the server (my bet: it's not going to catch on either).

So I like the pandas. They're human-readable, could be made machine-readable, and they're pretty self-explanatory. But yeah: I'd love to see more diversity. Where's my Age-Restriction Robots? Or perhaps my Parental Control Robots?

Draw them. Give them to the world. Folks here would use them, I'll bet.

[Bede]

I don't know of any alternatives, either, either than the defunct Rated F clique, for sites with cursing on them. I'd love to see a more age rating adoptables, too! (Preferably without "censor" in the name, since that's a loaded word nowadays, lol.)

[fairyrune]

So I like the pandas. They're human-readable, could be made machine-readable, and they're pretty self-explanatory.

oh yeah, my reason for not using the pandas is not in search of any kind of squeaky-clean standard. i would love alternatives to be equally "home-grown", cute badges made by a person with lots of love, as i believe all things web revival should be!

self-description is the name of the game and i fully agree; there's a lot of troubles associated with a universal age rating system when it reaches the point of "bar everyone from content by default", but i won't go into that here, you and i probably know what i mean :P to me it's a charming means of signalling what sort of tone my website will take!

I'd love to see a more age rating adoptables, too! (Preferably without "censor" in the name, since that's a loaded word nowadays, lol.)

oh absolutely. these were made in a time where that was less of a problem, perhaps.

if i make these, i'll absolutely share with the class - perhaps in the webcrafting materials board. now i think about it, this topic might better fit there?

[virtualpet2001]

as iconic as the Pandas are it's nice to have options i think. at least just reskins of the pandas with the same age rating system would be nice imo...could have other furry species or dragons or fairies or whatever. different flavors to suit different website aesthetics.

I think the pandas themselves are really cute and I hope they persist for many years to come

[ValyceNegative]

By themselves I think censorship pandas have become an institution. It's already crazy that they've become so universally spread and used despite them coming from a furry personal site, most importantly that they're still going strong nowadays! Mab's Land is dormant since 2008 (though thankfully still online) and the webmaster has been fully focused on their webcomic since then, so I doubt a new version will come from the original source. Nevertheless I imagine if a webmaster devotes their space to the original "oldweb" the use of these only makes sense.

I'm personally okay with them, but I agree that at least someone should provide an update to them: their age ranges and descriptions no longer fit many classifications of today and we could benefit for more detailed ranges or maybe even badges dedicated to just content. Also, but this is a stupid pet peeve of mine: they're not in 88x31 standard sizes... they mess up my button wall xD

[fairyrune]

as iconic as the Pandas are it's nice to have options i think. at least just reskins of the pandas with the same age rating system would be nice imo...

I'm personally okay with them, but I agree that at least someone should provide an update to them

yes! i suppose my aim would just to be to provide an equally cute alternative. i don't want to replace them and i certainly couldn't do that all on my own, what with everyone having free will and such :P i just don't personally enjoy them and was curious if anyone had seen anything similar. as for ratings, i'd probably not use actual ages; i find that those tend to presume there's always a "cut-off", and yknow, legally, there's only one - the age of 18. generally speaking, at least! stuff like E(veryone), T(een), etc are far more useful in my eyes. you don't suddenly become more mature the moment you turn 13, or something. as i said earlier, the way i would use them and therefore intend for them to be used is just as a flag to say "hey, my site will deal with some stuff that young kids probably shouldn't be reading" - so i think ratings like those would better suit that philosophy?

i've been thinking about what i could make on my own and i think it'd have to be some sort of creature, in keeping with the adopts that i see around - which are by and large, animals of some kind. my first thought was different species of birds, as i like birdwatching! egret for everyone, and so on.

i already like the style of the pandas. i could probably emulate that with a pixel pen and some basic tools in krita. i'm having fun just thinking about it! honestly i would encourage other people to do the same, if this would interest them! adopts don't have to be functional, but i think it's a fun idea. and by the popularity of the pandas, many other people think so too!