Liaison statement
Reply to LS on ITU-T X.PARCEP “Interoperable PARental Control Enforcement Principles (PARCEP) for Child Online Protection”: clarifications and question following the IETF 126 DISPATCH session

The IAB thanks ITU-T Study Group 17 for its liaison statement
(https://datatracker.ietf.org/liaison/2278/) and for the clarifications it
provides. The IAB recognises that guardians face a real usability problem
across the fragmented landscape of parental control mechanisms. SG17 asks
whether the IETF can develop protocol(s) in relation to this work. Neither the
IAB nor the IESG can answer that in the abstract. Whether a particular proposal
is appropriate for IETF standardization, and whether there is sufficient
community interest to undertake the work, would need to be considered based on
a concrete proposal.

Work in the IETF is proposed and progressed in a bottom-up process by
individual participants on open mailing lists, in Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF)
sessions, and in Working Groups (WG). The IETF’s structure does not give the
IAB a role in committing the IETF or its WGs to specific topics, deliverables,
or technical approaches. The IAB can, however, provide architectural guidance
and support where appropriate.

At IETF 126, the DISPATCH Working Group considered one individual
Internet-Draft, draft-campling-parcep-sync
(https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-campling-parcep-sync/), and took no
action on it. That is the disposition of a single document, not a determination
of IETF consensus on the whole problem space, and it does not preclude future
work. The IAB encourages proponents to engage with the IETF community. New work
on a specific, well-scoped interoperable building block would begin with
community discussion and, where there is sufficient interest, a BoF request.
Where changes to existing IETF protocols are needed, that work belongs in the
relevant existing WGs. Participation in the IETF is open to anyone, and
everyone contributes as an individual. Developers, device and operating system
vendors, application and platform providers, network operators, and those with
expertise in child online safety and digital rights are all welcome to bring
proposals and work towards a shared goal.

The IAB has not reviewed X.PARCEP
(https://www.itu.int/itu-t/workprog/wp_item.aspx?isn=23735) whose text is not
publicly available and is not in a position to assess it. The IAB thanks SG17
for keeping the IETF community informed and welcomes continued exchange through
the liaison process. Where a specific topic warrants direct discussion with the
IAB, the SG17 management team may contact the IAB Chair (iab-chair@iab.org) and
the IAB Executive Administrative Manager (execd@iab.org), and some time may be
set aside in a future IAB meeting.