Using Content Ratings

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

You can configure your Web server's content rating features to embed descriptive labels in HTTP headers of your Web page. Some Web browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or later, can detect these content labels and help users to identify potentially objectionable Web content. Your Web server's default Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)-based rating system uses a system developed by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA), which rates content according to levels of violence, nudity, sexual content, and offensive language. Before setting your Web content ratings, you should complete a ICRA questionnaire to obtain the recommended content ratings for your particular Web content.

If you are running a publicly viewable Web site, it is good practice to have the content rated. Doing so does not automatically make your site unavailable to users because the users must also enable content ratings and set content thresholds on their client computer for the rating information to have any effect on their browsing experience.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /User:Administrative_AccountName "mmc %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

Procedures

To set content ratings

  1. In IIS Manager, expand the local computer; right-click a Web site, directory, or file; and click Properties.

  2. Click the HTTP Headers tab.

  3. In the Content rating section, click Edit Ratings.

  4. Click the Ratings tab and select the Enable ratings for this content check box.

  5. In the Category list, click a ratings category. Drag or click the rating slider to set the level of potentially objectionable material for the category. Each setting displays a description of the rating level.

  6. Under E-mail address of person rating this content, type the e-mail address of the person who rated the content.

  7. Click the arrow next to the Expire on box and click a ratings expiration date from the calendar.

  8. Click OK.