Web rates UK Web ratings proposal an 'F'

Every so often, the Web provides a form of entertainment that almost everyone can enjoy -- a punching bag. Enter Andy Burnham, the UK Culture Minister, and his recent musings on a movie-style ratings system for the Internet.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph earlier this week, Burnham said that "new standards of decency" need to be applied to Web content, and that he means to approach the Obama administration to create rules for English-language sites.

Burnham's concerns, which he said would be policed by ISPs, revolve around "child-safe" content, copyright, and libel. He stated that he wants ISPs to offer service tiers that provide access only to sites deemed suitable for children. He denied being opposed to free speech, but said, "There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical."

The Internet, in its richness, responded to Burnham's opinions with an impressive variety of howls. Calmer commentators explained -- as calmer commentators have explained since the days of Martin Rimm and the Communications Decency Act -- why applying ratings to Web sites (as opposed to static products such as movies or videogames) is a project akin to emptying the ocean with a toothpick.

A great many comments from the blogosphere were more or less unquotable in polite company (or here, even), but in PC Magazine, Lance Ulanoff gently described the plan as "quixotic" and "a beauty of a goose egg." The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones opened his blog post with a kind "Oh dear Mr Burnham -- you surely cannot have expected a little light musing in the Daily Telegraph to have turned you into the blogosphere's Public Enemy Number One?" and closed with a suggestion that the secretary drop by the BBC blog to explain himself better.

And TechCrunch's Mike Butcher tried having it both ways -- explaining to the world at large in a post that Burnham's remarks were part of a grand British weekend tradition of "government minister opens mouth and inserts foot," but hijacking Burnham's name on Twitter to, um, teach him a lesson. Twitter has since stepped in; it is unclear at press time if any lesson was in fact learned.