An approach is provided for requesting access to content associated with a resource identifier. A system receives a first request to access content associated with a resource identifier. The system then determines to generate a second request for validating the content based, at least in part, on the resource identifier and to transmit the second request to a validation service. The system receives validation information based, at least in part, on the second request. In one embodiment, the validation information includes a preview of the content.