Rating the Web

If you think the Motion Picture Association of America's Ratings Board is an unreliable arbiter of decency, just wait for what's coming down the pike to protect our children from the wild and woolly Internet.

Content ratings don't yet exist for online video, but according to industry insiders, some sort of censorship standard is the next logical step as the medium becomes more widespread and corporate-controlled. "Every major form of media, from movies to videogames, has gone the way of ratings," Jonathan Shambroom, a VP at the Sony Pictures-owned Grouper told Variety recently. "I think it's inevitable."

According to the same article, video-sharing site Veoh once welcomed all types of videos, including pornography. But two months after ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner joined Veoh's board, the anything-goes policy was changed. Now, Veoh outlaws any video containing "nudity or sexually explicit content, excessive violence or any illegal or otherwise inappropriate footage," according to the site's terms of service.

Such changes in policy may account for the sudden proliferation of stripteases, lapdances and clothing malfunctions on the bigger web showcases. How else to explain the fact that Google Video's top ten includes such innocuously prurient videos as #1 selection, "Girl Gets Naked During a Game of Strip Poker" and "Accidentally Naked Girl"?