Canadian TV Now V-Chip Ready

nitemayr writes: "The Toronto Star, along with many other publications, report that many Canadian broadcasts are now V-Chip ready. The V-Chip (which I'm sure you will remember) allows viewers to filter television based upon ratings imposed by others. This is a boon to lazy parents everywhere (In Canada) who can now safely lock their 'kidz' in front of the tube without having to worry about them seeing violence or mayhem, unless they watch the news, or a documentary, or almost anything on the CBC (Candadian Broadcast Company)" " Invisible to viewers, the rating code triggers the chip, which turns the television screen to black if the rating is too high." Really.

Comments

Excellent!

[Adversary]

This now means that canadians now enjoy the best of both worlds.

Parents no longer have to feel that irrational guilt that the programs their children are watching might cause them to shoot up their school, or do something equally embarasing to the parents.

Children will discover the joy of learning, as they reprogram the chip (I doubt its much more difficult than getting past a "child-proof" cap, but its still positive reinforcement). They get all the sex and violence as before, only now they don't need to worry their parents might be checking up on them!

So everyone is happy! Until they discover that TV still sucks.

It's not enough

[Samrobb]

I'd rather see television shows come with some sort of classification tag, so I could build custom filters to screen out the truly offensive programming on television:

• Reality TV
• Infomercials
• Colorized versions of classic films
• Lame talk-show vehicles for one-time stars with dying careers
• Anything related to the WWF or XFL
• Friends
• Any show based around sickeningly sweet little children
• Jerry Lewis movies
• Steven King movies
• Odd-numbered Star Trek movies
• Any news broadcast that mentions dot-com, dot-bomb, or e-anything.

Ultimate control would be hooking this up to a Tivo, and specifying that any blocked content would be replaced by something with greater entertainment value, like Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Re:It's not enough

[demaria]

In a similar topic, here is what JMS from Babylon 5 had to say about a particularly violent scene in the "Dust to Dust" episode:

"This scene *should* be very affecting. It goes to Joe's Theory of Violence on TV. To wit...that we need more of it, but it has to be realistic violence. It has to show consequences. You glorify or desensitize violence when you shoot somebody, and they just go down, no yelling in pain, no sobbing as their guts fall out onto the street. It's just gunfire, loud noises, excitement and fun. If you're going to show violence, then show it for what it *is*, and show it the way people would react to it. Make the audience understand that this is a *person*, not one in a series of body counts."
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/050.html

Re:"lazy parents everywhere "

[Steve B]

If you don't like the V-chip...turn YOURS off. Leave MINE alone

No, the proper answer is, "If you don't like the V-chip... don't buy one -- and let the people who want one pay the legitimate market price for it, not the subsidy price generated by forcing it on anyone who buys a new TV."

Face it, you have your hand out just like those folks on welfare you mutter about.
/.

Random thoughts from a parent

[clary]

I bet the author is something like 21 with no kids and some wacko idea of what it is like to be a parent these days. Slashdot is so sickingly liberal, and is inhabited by people who, for the most part, are kids in college or young adults who don't have kids of their own.

*chuckle* There are some of us old farts with multiple kids. We just can't afford that expensive hardware that lets the young folks post so fast...

Trust me *boys*....the older you get the more conservative you will become, and all of the nonsense the higher educational system imparts on you will quickly fade.

I was actually very conservative in the current US sense when I was in college. I have since become very much more libertarian.

That leads me to to something another poster said in this thread, but which is worth repeating. The problem is not the V-chip itself, but the mandating of the V-chip. I wouldn't mind having another tool in my parenting efforts, but others should not have to subsidize my parenting by buying V-chips they don't want.

But to say that the V-chip is bad just because some outside organization rates a show, and you might think that a 13 year old should be exposed to just about anything for the experience, or, probably so you can win some sort of dysfunctional free speech argument, I only need to point to a few infamous locations here in the US to dispute your argument....lets start with Columbine high school in Colorado. Lets then move on down to San Diego. You know...thats where teenagers are blowing other teenagers away faster then aDuke Nukem can say "Damn I'm looking good".

Hold it right there, partner. It is a bit of a stretch to blame TV for animals who blow away innocent human beings. Those shooters had other problems, some including parents who didn't notice they were making pipe bombs in the garage. I challenge you to show that a V-chip would have made one iota of difference in any of those cases.

It WILL be. Just look at movie ratings.

[SlushDot]

You can see any movie you like. The MPAA rating means nothing... oh wait... Most if not all local governments have passed laws prohibiting movie theaters from showing films rated NC-17 or higher except in specially zoned areas of town. Hell, blockbuster (1/3 of US rental market) won't carry NC-17 films. And no, mother teresa, this isn't just "porn". The original Robocop was rated NC-17. It was EDITED for the movie theater, because NC-17 == automatic prohibition from being shown at more than 3/4 of all US theaters. "Not forced on me?" You bet it's forced on me.

I fully expect TV to do the same. It'll start off slowly, e.g., no TV-MA programs allowed on the air before 9:00pm, then it'll be no TV-PG or higher rated programming during "kids time slots", then some things will be restricted to 2:00-5:00am only. Then, "since no one is watching this" and "it's no longer profitable to the TV station", programs with too strong a rating will be dropped all together, by the TV station's choice. Then, once people are "used to this stuff not airing", it won't be hard to pass legislation to keep it from ever returning to the air waves.

You wait and see. This is how it goes. Why isn't any asking who is doing this "rating" anyway? DOn't you wonder?

Re:Seems like a good system

[Alatar]

Reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons

Homer Simpson: Hey, what gives? I thought you had a satellite dish.

Homer clicks the remote several times, sees nothing but dead air

Ned Flanders: Sure dodilly-do. Over 230 channels...looocked out!