Platform for Internet Content Selection
The PICS specification enables labels (metadata) to be associated with Internet content. It was originally designed to help parents and teachers control what children access on the Internet, but it also facilitates other uses for labels, including code signing and privacy. The PICS platform is one on which other rating services and filtering software have been built.
The PICS system has two types of components: rating systems and rating labels. A rating system defines the criteria for how content is rated.
The rating label is the actual rating

