Culture

Mom to TV: "Delete all sex and violence"

V-chips can help parents clean up what their children watch. So why don't they use them?

By Rula Razek

Anyone remember the V-chip? That once vaunted gadget, which lets parents block offensive TV programming, has been mandatory in all new television sets -- 25 million of them -- since Jan. 1. But even in this year's hand-wringing about violence in the media, only half of American parents who have V-chips in their TVs actually use them. And even fewer are aware of the TV ratings system on which the V-chip is based. One survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center showed 9 in 10 parents didn't know the age ratings for programs that their children watched. What gives?

I asked Federal Communications Commissioner Gloria Tristani. She blames the TV networks, which she says have kept parents in the dark about both V-chips and TV ratings. "If the goal is to educate parents," Tristani says, "one or two PSAs [public service announcements] over a three-month period is plainly insufficient." One may well question the networks' commitment after a scathing Federal Trade Commission report released this fall accused the entertainment industry of blithely ignoring its own ratings, marketing violent movies and music to underage consumers.

But the complexity of the ratings system itself also may be to blame. There are not only age-based ratings (TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA), but also content ratings (V for violence, S for sexual situations, L for coarse language, D for suggestive dialogue). The ratings are used in tandem, so, for example, a TV-14 show might have a V for violence, too. But a TV-MA show with a V for violence would have more frequent, more intense violence than a TV-14 show with violence. Still with me? Then try sorting out the difference between "coarse language" and "suggestive dialogue."

Then there's the enforcement problem: There are more than 2,000 hours of TV programming per day, and it's up to the networks to rate their own shows. As you can imagine, such self-imposed ratings may not always be objective.

So the system is flawed. But that doesn't mean it's not useful. Today, half of American kids have TV sets in their bedrooms, according to a new study. A technology like the V-chip is a practical, if not perfect, fix for parents struggling in the face of a media onslaught generated by TV, cable, video games, movies and the Internet.

And the evidence shows that parents do want to keep up. Annenberg researchers found that 85% of parents are concerned about what their kids are watching. Having a V-chip is like having a pair of parental eyes trained on your child's TV set, even when you're not there.

Ultimately, of course, no gadget can replace conversations with kids about what's on the tube. Says Tristani, "The V-chip is not a substitute for parents. It's a tool." And that means those little everyday wrangles with children about what and how much to watch won't disappear, V-chip or no. Which might leave some parents wishing that the TV itself could disappear.