Information for parents

It’s great that you as parents care about age ratings on the internet and how to protect kids from content that might be bad for them.

This website is primarily for webmasters and content providers to show them how to install age classification on their websites. Nevertheless you as parents, school teachers or whoever may be interested in getting information here on how to protect minors on the internet.

 

What is it all about?

age.xml is an age classification system for websites. You probably know age rating in cinemas and the age icons on DVD boxes. We support the same idea for the open internet. Because we don’t have a cashier in the internet checking passports when someone buys a movie or computer game, we have to use a more up-to-date solution. age.xml is this solution. The idea: When your kid uses the internet and requests a website, it is checked in the background on the fly whether this content might hurt him or her. If the content is not suitable for minors, the website will be blocked; otherwise it will be shown.

 

How to use it as parents?

You don’t have to care much about technology and don’t need to know anything about age.xml to use it. Just download a Parental Control Software (see: Tools/Parental Control Systems on this website) and install it. The software will automatically read the age ratings done with age.xml.

 

Does age.xml provides enough child protection because not all websites are age rated?

Good Parental Control Systems (PCS) are not based only on age ratings found on websites like age.xml files. Age ratings by webmasters and their consultants (rating bodies, lawyers etc.) are some of the best data for age classification available. But to cover the “mass” of the internet, good PCS also use huge filter lists updated regularly by automatic spiders and human work. It's a combination that makes good filter results and ultimately ensures good child safety.