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

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

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?