 Wow, just had a proper look at OARS (Open Age Ratings Service) used in GNOME Software, elementary OS AppCenter, etc., and it’s problematic as hell. Thank goodness they removed “homosexuality” from the rating (wtf?) but it still represents a very limited world-view. e.g. “nudity likely to cause offense” To whom, exactly? “Intense: Explicit nudity showing nipples…” Men, put your shirts back on! Under language: profanity (“defined as blasphemous…language”) Not a secular rating, then… 4 comments
“As of 2020, various countries have laws which criminalise lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people. In order for software and content to be distributed in those countries without breaking the law, and possible reprisal, it is necessary to be able to tag software and content which contains LGBT references, so that it can be hidden in those countries.” Like, seriously, fuck you for ever writing this. How the fuck does someone write something like this and think, yeah, this is fine? This crap sickens the hell out of me. Folks who enjoy certain human rights in the West being oh-so-very understanding of systems used to oppress people elsewhere (while it just so coincidentally happens to benefit their wallets) isn’t being “culturally sensitive”, it’s normalising oppression. It’s lacking a fucking backbone. It‘s privilege, front and centre. With apologies to Desmond Tutu, the people being oppressed in those countries do not appreciate your “cultural sensitivity”. “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” – Desmond Tutu |
Gregory's Server
The pushback and attitude displayed here by the maintainer tells me OARS isn’t fit for purpose – and likely no centralised content rating system is.
Again, we can do better than to prepetuate the limited worldview of trillion-dollar US companies like Apple with “open” versions of their “moral” frameworks based on profit maximisation.
https://github.com/hughsie/oars/issues/35
https://github.com/hughsie/oars/issues/39
https://github.com/hughsie/oars/issues/40
https://github.com/hughsie/oars/issues/41
The pushback and attitude displayed here by the maintainer tells me OARS isn’t fit for purpose – and likely no centralised content rating system is.
Again, we can do better than to prepetuate the limited worldview of trillion-dollar US companies like Apple with “open” versions of their “moral” frameworks based on profit maximisation.