[Foundation-l] PG rating

[Phil Nash]

John Vandenberg wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Risker <risker.wp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Many countries have different rating schemes for movies, television,
>> video games, and other media.
>
> Which rating systems would apply to our content?
>
> i.e. does the Australian regulatory body have jurisdiction over
> Wikipedia?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Classification_Board
>
> Yes it does, if the Australian Communications and Media Authority
> refers the websites to it.
>
> repeat and rinse for each country.

Rubbish, and the article you cite is very poorly-written anyway. Australia 
is not China and does not, and cannot, restrict access to websites that are 
global in nature. And if it even tried to do so, I've met a few Aussies in 
my time who understand the Internet and would easily subvert any regulation 
whatsoever. Not many, it has to be said, but enough to make such a move 
useless.

>> There are literally tens of thousands of pages on
>> the English Wikipedia that would fall afoul of rating schemes of
>> multiple countries, although they would vary significantly from
>> country to country. ..
>> But we already know that, so I wonder why you ask this?
>
> Sure there are a lot of possible problems, but I am wondering if we
> have any concrete examples for us to consider.  It may inform debate
> to talk about real content pages on a Wikipedia project which should
> be rated, either by law or on a voluntary/best practice basis.

Such debate would be useless. "one man's meat", etc, and I don't see how 
Wikipedia could possibly subscribe to a "lowest-common denominator" type of 
policy, unless it wants to become an encyclopedia fit only for children, and 
beyond that, an encyclopedia fit only for what parents, or worse, 
politicians, think appropriate. I didn't fight in two World Wars- I admit 
that- but my parents and grandparents did- that we could have free access to 
information, which means all information. And any attempt at grading, 
rating, or whatever, is bound to be a breach of so many WP policies that if 
you don't know what they are, you shouldn't be an Arbitrator, an 
Administrator, or even an editor.

Kill this idea now.