Zazzle Rating System Flawed?
Written by Kayecee on April 6, 2008 – 10:19 am
Now, come on…. y’all know I’m not a prude….. far from it….
But, seriously….. do y’all think my 8 year old daughter should be shopping for gifts with a design like this for dear old dad? How about this design on a gift for my Mother’s Day present?
But….. but….. but….. those gifts should be fine for an 8 year old to pick out for her parents! After all…. those designs are rated G.
Me thinks Zazzle has opened a can of worms with their rating system. Concerning the G-Rating, their own Q&A area states:
Uhhhhh…. hello….. I believe that there’s just a bit of nekkid-ness goin’ on in those designs!
What does Zazzle have to say in response to complaints in the forum about the first design? Here is ZazzleTony’s response:
There are some good points made here and it’s been great to read everyone’s input on this matter. The reasoning behind having this gallery stay at G-rated is along the lines of CowboyCraic’s post. The images in this gallery are provocative in nature and they definitely do walk the line, but we feel that these images are no different from what you see on television shows or various style/fitness magazines that you see on magazine racks and are displayed for anyone to see.
We would like to thank everyone for their concerns in regards to this gallery, but please understand that the decisions made by Zazzle are for the best interest of Zazzle and our mission to be the world’s leader in creating one-of-a kind products for everyone to enjoy!
While I applaud Zazzle for taking a stand and attempting to make their marketplace family friendly, I have a problem when designs like the ones I just linked to are considered appropriate for my 8 year old to peruse. If you wouldn’t see it on the Disney channel or Nickelodeon, it shouldn’t be showing in a G-rated area. Sorry….. don’t think either one of those products qualify!
If Zazzle is going to keep this policy, I feel that they need to get some strict guidelines in place. If not, the system just deteriorates into a subjective thing….. what I feel is inappropriate may be smiled upon favorably by someone else.
They will also have to actually follow their own policies. Dictionary.com defines nudity as, “Having no clothing; naked.” Responding with, “The images in this gallery are provocative in nature and they definitely do walk the line…..” when the image in question clearly displays nudity is beyond belief! Unless, of course, wearing a pair of shoes constitutes being fully clothed. Let’s see someone walk down the street dressed like that….. it won’t take 5 minutes to get busted by the cops for public indecency!
I’ve seen complaints from various shopkeepers who have had their designs yanked from the open marketplace because they were not deemed appropriate for a G-rating. But those above are? Tell me if I’m wrong!
(And yes, I am fully aware that other POD companies have mature designs as well. Zazzle is the one company that has implemented the Rating system, however.)
Popularity: 64% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Tags: Zazzle
Posted in Latest News: Zazzle |
April 6th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Oh my!
Put that second one on a mug for me for Mother’s Day, and I will be one happy mamma!
Seriously though, yes, that is definitely a flaw. It seems as if they’re trying to keep the naughty photo accounts happy, but to me, those are clearly PG13 at least. Come on, she’s naked! Except for shoes of course.
(Report comment)
April 6th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
LOL Yeah…. I want one of the mugs too!
I think that a lot of problems with Zazzle’s system could be solved by placing 2 prominent buttons on the front page…. one to surf G-Rated, one to surf PG-13 and above.
I think a lot of shopkeepers will mark their designs as G whether or not it is simply because they want it to show up in the marketplace that the customers see first. If the choice was obvious to customers, they could decide for themselves whether or not they want to surf mature designs.
If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t even realize that I COULD search for mature designs. You have to be up front and make everything blatantly obvious for surfers. Not everyone who lands on Zazzle’s pages to shop will be familiar with the daily workings of the site. And not everyone who wants mature designs will want to take the time out to open an account. They’ll just move on to the next site in their search results.
I had to search all over before I found out how to surf the mature designs. I had to log in….. go to My Zazzle…. then go to account settings. But as a consumer, I would have never realized that option was there!
(Report comment)
April 6th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Oh… and I double-checked my settings…. I’m definitely only supposed to be seeing G-Rated designs….. beside the little circle that is marked it says, “G - This content contains images and/or language appropriate for people of all ages and tastes, including children.”
So my mother, my pastor and the 1st grade class that I teach should be able to view those designs with no qualms?
I think not.
(Report comment)
April 6th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Well I think their interpretation is all the sensitive parts are covered makes it G rated. Then again, in Windsor, Ontario Canada, it is legal to be topless.
Somehow when I think G, I think Disney. Not that.
I guess you can have alot more on a shirt under those guidelines, since they so say alot of words on TV now. I see kids everywhere asking, Mommy what’s a p**** (asterisked out, but you get the idea)
Nice site by the way Kayecee.
(Report comment)
April 6th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I can see why they are allowing them to remain in the G rating though I do not agree with it. There are no sexual body parts actually showing … just extreme sexual innuendo, though I don’t count shoes or whatever the strip of cloth is as clothing so both are full of nudity.
As a shopper, this is not what I would want my almost 11 year old grandson seeing at their website. As for “mature” surfing … I did not know it existed until this subject came up and I agree that it would not be something average window shoppers would discover on their own.
(Report comment)
April 6th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Thanks for the compliment Micheal…. glad to see you’ve crossed over to the dark side!!!
Ooooooo….. Barbara’s crossed over too!
I’m like Micheal…. when I think G, I think Disney. The average customer is going to think Disney. Then they run into something that is totally inappropriate for children and would be nowhere near the Disney channel.
With the current set up, Zazzle (and their shopkeepers) will lose customers who come to browse family friendly and luck up on designs like that. AND they will lose customers that realize they have to create an account to browse the PG-13 designs IF they realize that they can purchase mature-oriented designs at all.
Just like Barbara, I had no idea that there was a way to surf mature-oriented designs until the topic came up at GG. And Barbara and I are NOT your average run of the mill customer….. we both own websites and are computer savvy…. if WE didn’t realize it, how is the average consumer going to realize it?
(Report comment)
April 6th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
(Report comment)
April 6th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Thanks for your input my lovely Caroline.
(Report comment)
April 7th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
“but we feel that these images are no different from what you see on television shows or various style/fitness magazines”
Man, I’ve really got to get cable… and some fitness magazines.
If Zazzle wants to use the movie-style ratings, they need to use movie-style standards — neither one of those images would make it into a G-rated movie.
Without knowing a lot about Zazzle, it seems to me as if they want to keep naughty-but-profitable images/shops in front of everyone, but they also want to pander to the “everything on the Internet should be safe for three year olds” market.
Not impressive.
(Report comment)
April 9th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I don’t think that they fall in the ‘G’ category at all. BUT, I have some designs that (because I’m a Mom) I rated PG-13 on Zazzle. They’re really not too racy, but have some adult humor in them. Of course, I never sell them on Zazzle because in order to see them, the user would have to be logged on. And I can’t promote them in my Gallery because of the rating. So, I’m just going to agree that the system is screwy
(Report comment)
April 12th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
According to Zazzle, you don’t have to be logged in to view the R rated designs, they can be seen from your store, but not in the Marketplace.
NOOOOO! This isn’t good enough if the racy designs discussed in this blog are allowed to be G rated. Zazzle needs to have the same standards for everybody. They can easily have people search by rating, much like google. Its not that difficult.
(Report comment)
April 13th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
My PG-13 designs DO show in my gallery, but I can’t ‘Promote to Homepage.’ (put it in the featured designs). Every time I try to put a PG-13 design in there, I get an ‘Action Failed’ error.
(Report comment)
June 21st, 2008 at 5:29 am
I’m heading for Windsor.
(Report comment)