London, UK — Kerchoonz, the UK-based social networking site that pays musicians for the use of their music and videos, announced today that they will be the first site to use age certification and rating system for videos content streamed on the site.

The announcement conforms with recommendations made last month by Parliament’s Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. The panel determined that videos posted on sharing sites like YouTube should carry age certificates and those containing adult content or violence should be subject to TV-style ratings commonly used today to safeguard children.

“We want to comply as much as possible with the recommendations of policy makers while not stifling the free speech of our registered content creators,” noted Christian Ulf Hansen, former Director of Writer / Publisher Relations BMI Europe. “Unlike sites like YouTube which simply use an adult block, we’ve developed a complex rating system that protects youngsters from unsuitable content while providing conditional access to our registered users.”

Although pornographic material will be barred from the Kerchoonz site, videos uploaded to the site will be subject to a rating system based on nudity, violence or explicit language. The system includes ‘universal’, over-15 or over-18 ratings.

In meeting the panels recommendations, Kerchoonz’ rating system will block adult content from public viewing on the site prior to 9:00 PM. In addition, content rated “15″ and “18″ will only be accessible to logged-in adult users. The rating system will operate using Geo IP address location technology that recognizes time differences world-wide by logging the IP location of the user.

Slated for launch this month and backed by a $490,000 investment from the Scottish Co-investment Fund, social media platform Kerchoonz lets registered artists and songwriters share their music and videos with fans while getting paid for every stream and download.

Fans, musicians and music industry professionals are invited to sign up in this pre-beta stage at http://www.kerchoonz.com