Cell industry is adopting ratings for content
Cell phone providers are adopting a ratings system for multimedia services to flag music, video and gaming products intended for adults. They will also provide tools to block access to that content.
The ratings apply only to content authorized by the providers, so youths could still use their phones to access public Web sites that feature content and products involving sex, profanity and violence.
The rating system, similar to those used by the movie, television, music and video game industries, was announced Tuesday by the industry group CTIA, which reiterated a pledge not to offer any restricted content until tools to block it is available.
Still, that pledge has been seen as a sure sign that at least some wireless operators are mulling the potential riches that “restricted” services might generate. It was unclear from the CTIA’s announcement how long it might take to develop the parental control technologies that would potentially usher in such services.
Two commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission — Jonathan S. Adelstein and Kathleen Q. Abernathy — applauded the industry’s bid at self-regulation.
“This industry effort should really help families who rely on their cellphones but do not want their children inadvertently exposed to adult material,” Adelstein said in a statement.
Online game property yields $100,000
In one of the largest sales yet of property in an online game, a Miami resident has bought a virtual space station for $100,000 and wants to turn it into a cross between Jurassic Park and a disco.
Jon Jacobs, a director of independent films, plans to call the space resort, in the science-fiction themed game Project Entropia, “Club Neverdie.” Like other land areas in the game that has been visited by 300,000 players, the resort grounds will spawn dinosaur-like monsters, which visitors can kill.
Jacobs will take a cut of the virtual resources that the carcasses yield, like hides.
Jacobs, 39, plans to hire famous disc jockeys to entertain visitors once a week or so at the resort but still reckons on netting $20,000 a month from the hunting tax and other income.
“I want to operate this thing at the level of a major nightclub in a major city,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs bought the property late last month from MindArk PE AB, Project Entropia’s Swedish developer. The game, which has no subscription fee, has its own currency but it’s convertible at a fixed rate to dollars.
AOL policy now permits targeting
America Online Inc. is updating its privacy policy to outlaw a marketing tactic it has already stopped employing and to permit the targeting of ads and content based on what users do online.
AOL promises to no longer share names and home addresses with other companies for marketing, formalizing a policy put in place a year ago based on subscriber feedback, spokesman Andrew Weinstein said Wednesday.
But the new policy, which takes effect Thursday, lets AOL track what visitors do at its sites and tailor news, weather and ads based on such tracking. Many of AOL’s rivals already serve targeted ads and content, but the company was restricted from doing so under a policy little changed since 1998.