Experts discuss future of online content classification
Lee Kyong-sook, left, chairperson of the Korea Media Rating Board, speaks during a press conference at the International Classification Forum (ICF) 2016 at the Press Center in Seoul, Thursday. George Sotiropoulos, right, assistant secretary of the Australian Classification Branch, and David Austin, CEO of the British Board of Film Classification also participated in the event. / Courtesy of Korea Media Rating Board
By Kwon Mee-yoo
In addition to traditional media such as film and television, online platforms have become an inextricable part of modern media consumption. However, in the era when more than 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, it is virtually impossible to classify all content and filter out harmful content for children with a conventional rating system.
At the International Classification Forum (ICF) 2016, held at BEXCO in southern city of Busan, Friday, international experts from the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland and the Philippines introduced their classification systems. They also discussed cooperation in online content classification.
Lee Kyong-sook, chairman of the Korea Media Rating Board (KMRB), said the Korean board is also putting much effort in classifying the increasing number of content, especially online.
The KMRB classified over 2,000 films and 6,500 video content including video on demand services this year.
"Online videos are available, not restricted by time and space. However, there are physical limitations in classification of all content online and offline," Lee explained.
To process the exploding amount of content to sort, the KMRB subdivided standards and increased the number of commissioners to shorten the evaluation period.
"To raise efficiency in the classification system, we will research and adopt advanced systems in other countries," Lee said.
David Austin, CEO of British Board of Film Classification (BBCF), presented five categories of its online classification system and discussed how it balances legislation and voluntary partnership in each industry.
"The online classification standards are consistent online and offline," Austin said.
The British classification system is categorized in five sectors _ home entertainment, music, mobile, video sharing and pornography. Among those, Austin mentioned home entertainment and mobile content as successful cases, adopting the BBCF standard.
"We created a tool that automatically classifies online videos based on a questionnaire submitted by both the uploader and crowd sourcing," Austin said. The YouRateIt system was successful during its test-operation in Italy last year.
As for online pornography, Austin sees it as a semi-success as it requires voluntary participation from the industry. "The parliament of England is trying to regulate online pornography and we will be the agency in charge."
George Sotiropoulos, assistant secretary of the Australian Classification Branch, said the country has been concerned about classification and content regulation, especially online classification.
"Australia has a classification scheme, but it was established in 1995, before the internet era," Sotiropoulos said.
Huge amounts of online content are not submitted to the Classification Board, while overlapping materials are classified multiple times.
"We made three innovations ― partnership with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), the children's e-safety commissioner and Netflix," Sotiropoulos said. "We implemented a tool to classify online content from the IARC and it has sorted over 500,000 online games since June 30, which couldn't be possible without the tool."