LOS ANGELES, CA and WASHINGTON, DC — There’s been a lot of talk lately on Capitol Hill and elsewhere about whether government should force adult websites to employ ratings or whether pornographers can be trusted to do it themselves. Vivid Entertainment Group, a major force in the adult entertainment market, has taken the step of willingly adopting the self-regulatory Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) labeling standard for its web presences.Vivid’s decision to use the ICRA’s self labeling technology on all of its sites in addition to placing the ICRA label on each page that contains downloadable videos, comes shortly after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) rejected a proposed .XXX domain.

Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment, explains that the move was made in order “to back the ICRA effort to protect kids from unwanted exposure to online material intended for viewing by adults only.”

Hirsch states that, “As an industry leader, Vivid takes seriously its responsibility to help provide tools that enable parents to monitor what is seen on home computers by their children.”

As well as embracing the ISCRA label, Vivid has shown its support of the non-profit organization dedicated to balancing the need to protect minors from potentially objectionable content and the need to maintain free speech online via financial contributions. Hirsch says that his company has agreed to participate in the June 14, 2006 IRCA/Progress & Freedom-sponsored roundtable discussions about adult content rating to be held in Brussels, Belgium. The following September will see Hirsch as a panelist during a similar late summer event in New York City.

“We commend Vivid for taking the initiative to protect children from adult content online,” Stephen Balkam, CEO of ICRA states before emphasizing the importance of industry self-regulation, by adding, “Now that the .XXX domain has been rejected, it’s more important than ever for providers of adult content to take the necessary steps to ensure their material can be accessed only be suitable users.”

Part of doing this for an increasing number of sites is the inclusion of the ICRA label, which alerts content filters and a variety of blocking applications to spring into action, keeping it away from the potential viewer.

Hirsch says that Vivid’s labeling program continues the tradition of self-regulation after it’s Burn to DVD program last month, which allows surfers to download Vivid videos directly to their computers in order to burn on DVD. Vivid also plans to print an ICRA label on all DVDs sold or rented in actual stores.