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Kermit the Frog to promote V-Chip
StainlessSteelRat writes "It's a shock to me, but my favorite green man has become the spokesfrog for the v-chip. He will be, "Explaining the v-chip's purpose, its practical applications and the rating system that works with the device," to the same people that can't seem to get their VCR's to stop flashing 12. " My childhood has been ripped away-the question I have, is the V-chip what's at the end of the rainbow connection?
I predict that Jim Henson will come back from the dead in the form of Godzilla with the head of Richard Nixon to destroy Disney in response to this profane development.
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
Could someone please explain to me (with or without the benefit of muppet spokescreatures) exactly what I'm supposed to be protecting my children from?
Could someone please post the results of any sort of study demonstrating a correlation between the viewing of fictional sex or violence with mental or emotional disturbance?
I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that the viewing of this "explicit material" -- and in particular, sex -- is somehow "bad for children". (I can understand the desire to shield children from displays of violence; but not sex. Sex is a natural function, and is how those children got here in the first place.)
For the record, I'm a father of two children myself.
It has an assumed noun and verb of "It is". You understood it, didn't you? Then it's not really a sentence fragment. Should we keep going?
--- "So THAT's what an invisible barrier looks like!" - Time Bandits
Herfin der torper tungden tuhbersen fergun. Turbendernder!
It turned his brain into guacamole.
i'm dutch
Jilles
I disagree. I don't think that this will make the problem much worse than it already is. I think that Children's shows have already made the problem (Seasame Street is now Daddy)... I think that parents who tend to neglect their children will continue to leave their children in front of the T.V... this will just give them more of a piece of mind. I think that parents who still spend lots of time with the kids for the most part won't be largely affected by this... but it will help, maybe, when the baby sitter you don't know comes over and wants to watch BrutalDeath III, or when your four-year-old wakes up and slips downstairs to watch whatever is on HBO at 2:00 in the morning.
Anyway, it's a purely optional thing and so I don't think it's so bad.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
Check under the couch.
-- This space intentionally left blank.
How long will it be before someone uses v-chip data to FIND sex and violence?
Bullshit. Its about providing more choices. Its about providing tools for parenting. Who gives a fuck if kids can't watch certain channels? They can just go read a book.
Sitting next to your child every minute may be preposterous, but there's a better solution. Raising them to know what is "good" and "bad". Or raising them to realize the difference between reality and television. It may be too much to babysit their TV time, but having discussions with them at dinner about what they watched isn't that preposterous.
The v-chip isn't about this. It's like security through obscurity. They assume that by removing "bad" elements, we can raise "good" children. How about this, pointing out "bad" elements and introducing them as such?
Grue
Hmmm....
i am not sure the change would be for the better.
ideally, we could just censor all the ads on our tv's and life would be nice.
although, i would suspect that it would drive advertisers to use even more sneaky and questionable methods, by blurring content and advertisment, for instance.
compare to the effect of the remote control on the television advertising industry, for instance, might yeild some insights.
although, it would be interesting to see perverted censorship technology and politics re-perverted into something useful - the right to control what we watch.
but then again, i don't have a TV.
adrien
Point and Grunt
Not because parents will assert their rights to raise their kids in their own way.
Not because kids are clever enough to bypass any and all 'child-proof' methods laid before them.
Not because the Federal Legislature is about to grow a conscience and a common sense, and thus realize that this whole censorship in the name of the children is rank with hypocricy...
No. It will fail because most of the parents that would even consider using it, still have 12:00 blinking on their VCR. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him RTFM.
As for Kermit, well... Good riddence to another fallen fairytale. Exposing the children to the fact that even their childhood friends are sellouts is a worthwhile lesson. Disillusionment is good. We do not want our kids growing up in a world of illusions and false beliefs, do we?
Here's to reality!
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
It just occurred to me that this would have been a great way to sabotage the V Chip. Back when they were trying to push it, instead of opposing it, we should have tried to bog it down with features (like tagging ads) that other groups (networks) would have opposed. :-) We'de just have to figure out some bullshit way to spin it as being "For The Children" and no one would be able to stop it.
Gotta keep this in mind for next time...
---
Have a Sloppy day!
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I don't know where you live but that's not the case in most (if not all) of US. The cable system is required to transmit all broadcasts within a certain range of their audience. The non-broadcast channels (MTV, Comedy Central, HBO, etc.) are included by contract with your local community government. (which also set the rates)
I find it strange that this is happening. Mainly because I was shocked when I watched 'Muppet Treasure Island'...comparing it to the other muppet movies I have watched, this one seems to have quite a bit of sexual innuendo (much more than a frog and pig getting married), for example, the context with which Miss Piggy greeted "Loooong John".
Maybe I just didn't catch all of that in the older movies because I was younger at the time.
*shrug*
-Vel
LIAR! you are not rainfall and your email is not rainfa1l@happypuppy.com Try posting as yourself next time, or at least don't include an email that isn't yours.
--
"New worlds are not born in the vacuum of abstract ideas, but in the fight for daily bread..."
New worlds are not born in the vacuum of abstract
ideas, but in the fight for daily bread --Rudolf Rocke
"In the year 2000 - The marriage of Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog will come to an abrupt end when he converts to Judaism and can no longer eat pork."
Ok, bye.
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
I don't know about you all, but I've had the ultimate V-Chip for years. It's call a "remote control".
aÍÍ©ÍÌÍ£Ì'̽ͩÌÍzÍYÌÍÌY
Sentence fragments. Damn good device.
--
"HORSE."
"HORSE."
-Flaming Carrot
So...let me get this straight. In order to explain a simple concept to PARENTS....they had to go and contract a children's puppet?!
Werd.
>I'd rather a Blue Screen of Death than the constant adverts
Well, believe it or not, I saw the next best thing
I was in Stowe, VT, watching "Legend" on Saturday night, and flicked through the channels during a commercial break.
There on channel 10, the local community access, was the infamous "Windows 98 is shutting down" screen.
They must use it to run the slide show that's on most of the day.
If my snapshots come out, i'll post it somewhere.
pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Kermit the Frog is now a puppet of the evil empire. Once Jim Henson departed, Kermit became a pawn of the same company that now owns the first three letters of the alphabet in television. He is under mind control. There's nothing you can do about it. Mickey has his hand right up Kermit's butt and all we can do it just watch him dance. It sure is traumatic, but we hopefully can still cover our butts before the mouse shoves his gloved hand up there too. Otherwise we'll be using "Wholesome Family Entertainment" just like Wilford Brimley used it to describe oatmeal. God help us all!
The only problem with fade to black detectors is that some shows, take Frazier for example, fade to black during the show itself. Then you lose part of the show.
Another way of blocking ads that I've heard of is monitoring the closed captioning, since commercials tend not to be closed captioned (AFAIK).
The problem is there isn't a definite "if X then its a commercial" relationship to rely on. There never will either. It's death to a network to say broadcast some information along with the way you make your money so that people can ignore them and put you out of business.
Just do yourself a favor and switch to PBS (although those "sponsored by" notes are getting very close to commercials these days).
Doug
Venn ist das nurnstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ya! Beigerhund das oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!
On a more serious note... Does the estate of Jim Henson control when/where his characters are used to further political agendas? This seems like the sort of thing he'd have been very much against.
Werd.
No. At the end of the Rainbow Connection is a mixture of partially hydrogenated soybean oil, cats, cellulose gum, chicken wire, dipotassium phosphate, thiamin, riboflavin, red dye #2, mono and diglycerides, shredded Office97 documentation and artificial colors and flavorings. And it's owned by Viacom.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Hmmm... maybe it is just me, but maybe, just maybe parents should be spending time with their offspring and not letting the TV/Mass-media/Vchip raise them? WHatever happened to reading your kid a book or something?
just my $.02
Cheers!
The purpose of the v-chip is to block content. blocked content=censorship.
Regardless of that, anything which arbitrarily labels content is censorship. The mere act of labeling something is a very real form of censorship.
Here's what the ALA(American Library Association) has to say about labeling: (full text can be found here)
Labeling is an attempt to prejudice attitudes and as such, it is a censor's tool.
They have much more to say on the matter, so I recommend following the link to the full text.
Generic Man
Bah!
I've a 5 year old Sony VCR that has an internal battery that keeps the time when the power goes out.
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I think it's to explain it to children, so that they can then explain it to their parents! In the meantime, they can hack the v-chip and get to watch all the Power Rangers they want. :)
"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."
And what you don't know is that Galileo did have quite a bit of proof..
for example:
1) the sun has spots (not perfect as the church liked to think)
2) Jupiter has moons which revolve around it, which means that Jupiter is an object, not just a spot on a perfect sphere
3) Venus has phases (like the moon, from crescent to full)
4) the moon is a physical place... all those funky spots that look like a face are actually 3 dimensional: mountains, craters, etc.
And yes the church was bad and evil because several of the cardinals looked at Galileo's evidence and understood its implications perfectly well, but chose to punnish him in order to save face.
Doug
Venn ist das nurnstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ya! Beigerhund das oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!
It might be possible to leverage off the "parental control" issue here. I know more than one family who has ditched the TV because they didn't want their children corrupted by the interminable advertspam. This is a real issue for some parents. It's just as much part of letting parents have a say in what kind of crap gets stuck in their kids' brains as the sex and violence and adult situations bits.
And it's a real issue to some non-parents, as well. I'd rather a Blue Screen of Death than the constant adverts.
When I was a kid the "old folks" had a saying.
God protects children and fools.
This kind of makes a paradox because the fools are trying to protect the children now. The V-Chip will do nothing except force TV prices up.
The kind of morons who use the TV as a babysitter are the ones who will "need" the V-Chip, once you block out programming with sexual or violent content it will cease to keep childrens' interest and then these assholes will have to find another babysitting appliance to bitch about.
How long before M$ takes a hint on this and incorporates violence and sex filtering into Direct X?
Ratings are a bullshit way to inpose censorship.
Movies that get an NC-17 rating are destined to bring in no money because most theaters won't carry them. Just as the X rating was the kiss of death for movies in the 1980's.
I remember seeing the original robocop when the ED-209 fired for what seemed like 5 minutes into some guys chest, then two weeks later I saw it again and it went down to like 2 seconds. Why was the change made? Because the MPAA had threatened to slap the movie with an X rating if they didn't shorten the scene.
HBO, while they'll show damned near anything in their original productsion also will not carry X rated movies.
I'm sick of these fscking egg heads trying to protect us from ourselves. I want to eat a big bloods rare steak. I want to eat REAL butter, not that partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil bullshit!. Sometimes I want a cigar, or a cigarette. I KNOW that they're bad for me, but I WANT to do it anyway. I don't need you to protect me from myself.
Maybe I'll die at 75 instead of 77 because I had one too many bacon cheeseburgers. Or maybe I'll die tomorrow in a car accident.
God protect us when the fools want to protect our children.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Those will mess a kids mind up good. Better she should watch Sailor Moon...
Chuck
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I know it's off-topic but can someone shed some light on the purpose of the quarter ads? Did the US Treasury have reason to believe that people would stop using quarters in favor of two dimes and a nickel or something? Why did they have to spend money to contract Kermit the Frog to advertise currency that everyone already uses? How much did they pay? I know there must be a conspiracy around here somewhere ;)
numb
While I lament Kermit being used as a tool of censorship, I can't bring myself to be scared of the V-Chip. Maybe a 3000 node cluster of V-Chips, though.
See? I didn't even use the word 'Beowulf'
Doh!
--Conquering the Earth Since 1978.
I'm a muppetholic, I had fraggle rock birthday cake. But, by far the funniest thing ever was on the Daily Show with John Stewart, which is sooooo scripted, but this one part seemed to be genuine improv. John Stewart asked Miss Piggy a question (she was promoting muppets in the space) and she started to stutter on her answer, and John's face lit up for a second as he said, between laughs:
Got a frog in your throat?
hehe.
If tom green interview a muppet, I'm imagining a squirt gun filled with gasoline and Tom smoking a cigar...
when Push Comes to Shove
I was never told "You can't read/watch that." I was VERY rarely told "I'd prefer you wait on that one until you're a bit older, but I'm not going to stop you." And I listened because I trusted their judgement. (Well, Mom and I didn't see eye-to-eye on music or movies, because she doesn't like to be depressed by her entertainment, but Dad was no problem.) Heck, my parents were going to take me to Last Temptation of Christ when it came out
Also, I generally had better things to do than watch most TV, whether it was going to the library, swim team practice, drama club and band rehearsals, or (now) SCA practices, meetings and events. I don't watch much television now: a few comedies I like *if* I happen to be home and not busy, the news (sometimes), the occasional PBS special, and a movie here and there if I wanted to see it anyway.
Mindless acceptance of ANYthing, "kid-safe" or not, is unhealthy. A caring parent is going to make that very clear to the kiddies.
"Somebody exploded a letter-bomb today
If your kids are young enough (between 3 and 6) you can perform your own experiment. Let them watch "The Shining", you'll experience emotional disturbances until dawn.
Right now a program that questioned the basis of say a fundamental faith system would probably get some sort of adult tag.
That's a really good point. I seem to remember a scandal involving one of the internet blockers who were blocking Jewish sites....
Censorship is too easily misused. If I'm in charge and I don't like what someone else thinks or says... blip... censored... regardless of the validity or invalidity of their viewpoints.
Any minority viewpoint is destined to be censored in such an arrangement. Check out Alexis De Toqueville, a Frenchman who toured the early United States and pointed out that American democracy will inevitably lead to a "tyranny of the majority"
Doug
Venn ist das nurnstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ya! Beigerhund das oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!
Because of this, I have serious doubts as to whether or not I'll ever watch or buy anything by Henson and company ever again.
Censorship is the true obscenity, and this is what it's coming to. I wish things were different, but as it is I'm beginning to consider leaving the country as soon as I get out of college (assuming the government still allows people to leave the country at all by then). In the interests of "protecting chiuldren" they would reduce us to a nation of children. Then again, this is probably what they want, since children are easier to control than adults, especially adults who actually exercise their own minds rather than let the government do their thinking for them.
Intellectuals need a government lobby. We should try and get organized; I know it's the nature of us geeks to work alone but it takes concerted effort to make a difference. That's why the Slashdot Effect works; millions of people all doing the same thing at the same time (sure, it's not really concerted, but you get the same effect). It's how Linux works; imagine where it would be now if only Linus worked on it and no one else. It can work in real life too. I hate to turn Slashdot into a political platform, so this is best done on another site. It's probably a lost cause for our generation; we're all going to live under at least a brief period of totalitarianism at some point within the next fifty years, I'd imagine. But if we want our children to have any freedom whatsoever, we have to organize and get out into the real world.
Once the V-Cchip is in place and the children are 'protected', TV producers begin increasing the amount of sex in their shows to compete with other networks' shows. In no time we'll be able to turn on any prime-time TV station, and watch full frontal nudity, or maybe even a little penetration (if we're over 18 that is). Hell, I wouldn't be suprised if the only resistance to the V-Chip comes from Pay channels, like HBO, Cinemax or Playboy.
Maybe they should've named it the P-Chip, and have South Park's Chef endorse it instead of Kermit The Frog... I can just hear the commercial jingle now.. "I'm gonna make love to ya woman..."
_______
2B1ASK1
I am still PISSED OFF that George Washington is on the back of the Jersey Quarter crossing the Delaware and not Kermit the Frog like in the commercial. :-P
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
SSh.. Don't tell them that.. They might try to rationalize it..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
'Squize me? How are your tax dollars going to be used? Why don't you move to a less oppresive society. Oh wait.. Then you'd have to fear for your life..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Regardless of that, anything which arbitrarily labels content is censorship. The mere act of labeling something is a very real form of censorship.
Wow, that is prehaps the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Oh my God, look at the card catalog it categories books by category!!! What a horrible form of censorship!!!
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
I resemble that remark! Not all people who's VCRs flash 12:00 are utter morons, you know - some people have good reasons to leave their VCR flashing midnight (or is it noon?)
My VCR flashes 12:00 - well, really it flashes AUTO. Why? Because it's one of those auto-time-sensing VCRs that pick the time off of the datastream running through it to the television. And, for some unknown reason, my current cable company apparently doesn't include the time in the data they feed me.
You say I could set the clock? Sure, but then when the wind blew my power out, I'd be right back to square one. When you loose power an average of 2-3 times a week, resetting the vcr is a low priority.
As for Kermie promoting the V-chip... I'm not sure about that. How many parents are actually going to *enjoy* being talked down to by a stuffed green frog? Even fewer than would enjoy being explained the process by their children, I'm sure. Parents are *not* idiots, in the main. Even those who want to rely on some technological doohicky to babysit what their kids watch on TV rather than actually spending the time one needs to with remote in hand to do it yourself. Or spending the time discussing with children what they see on TV and explaining real versus fantasy vs televison and what is right and wrong.
However, Kermit's career's been rather dead of late. I'm sure he felt that any job was better than *no* job, and maybe he thought if he got his face out there, and got to talk to a more mature audience, he'd actually get a shot at some of the leading man roles in *real* films. Can't you just see Kermit the Frog in Total Recall 2? Or how about in Matrix 2 & 3, as a bad guy, even. Kermit's so typecast as the fun-loving, happy-go-lucky, all-around-nice green guy, I'm sure he's itching to do something more evil.
Be sure to look for Kermit the Frog as Mini Me in Austin Powers III.
OK, it took me a few minutes. Why would TV broadcasting companies kill the goose with the golden eggs??? Well simple they are not. On the contrary.
Porn and violence is good for advertising. So the last thing they want to do is get that of the screen. But they can't just broadcast more of it because then parents and politicians start to complain. Here comes the V chip! What a nice product. If you don't wan't all the porn and violence enable it. If you want porn and violence, leave it in the default position (off!).
In other words the V chip is just another symptom of America's hypocritical culture. Politicians and parents can rest assured because the V chip is going to save their children meanwhile tv companies can increase the level of violence and sex in their programs.
And since the average american is too lazy to even walk to the postbox (see other post on slashdot), most of them won't bother to enable the bloody chip (if only for the trouble you have to go through whenever you want to see a movie without the children present).
So from my point of view the V chip is brilliant since it will shut up those fucking moralists for a few years and at the same time the tv programs will get even more interesting.
Jilles
You teach your kids not to drink poison, but you also put a lock on the cabinet under the sink when they're ten months old.
i think the goal may be to feed off that beanie baby frenzy that is going to be ending in the next few months. people are going to have to collect all 50, some quarters are going to be retired soon and they'll become more valuable, and so on and so forth. get in on the collecting quarters thing early. some day all those quarters will be worth something.
Fine, that is your right. You can set rules about what your son can and can't watch and I won't complain at all. I will complain when the government forces all TV manufacturers to include a censorware chip and thus forces all consumers to pay for it whether or not they want it (You can buy a standard transmission. Very soon I will be unable to buy a non-vchip-crippled TV). I will also complain when the government intimidates the networks into establishing a ratings system that would be illegal if done through a law.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Yeah, all those people you mentioned originally did all their work for charity... shame, really...
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Heh, I get it for free....
Let's hear a big round of applause for the tragedy of the commons!!!
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Do I have to spell everything out?! Follow the damn link I supplied to find out what is meant by labeling. Well...you apparently didn't want to before, so I might as well quote that part to you as well...this is at the end of the page:
/. have the brains to extrapolate this sort of thing on their own...but sometimes I wonder.
This statement, however, does not exclude the adoption of organizational schemes designed as directional aids or to facilitate access to materials.
I would like to think that people on
GnrcMan
Here's a brilliant animation that explores Kermy's, ahem, relationship with Fozzy Bear (you'll need the Flash plugin to view it):
The Kermit Intermission
Check out the other Flash stuff there by James Paterson, pretty wild stuff.
That about sums it up. Mention one little thing and the linux zealots get all fired up about nothing.
Actually, I may be interested in the technology, if it helps me circumvent and sabotage it. American Empire, here we come! Oh, wait....
Moo.
Well, I don't know about getting porno, but it would be nice if they would start showing more movies un-dubbed. You know the movies that are totally ruined by editing the language. Movies like comedys where most if not all of the jokes are of an adult nature or contain BAD words. They show them but why? In the edited form they are not only no longer funny, but most of the time they don't even make sense at all.
Maybe commercials will be better too, imagine an ad for bras, "When My tits got saggy like this, (removes shirt to reveal the now deflated milk bags) I turned to the NEW SUPER TITSLINGER 2000"!!! Or one for a jock itch powder, "Gee Dave, my balls are driving me up a wall but you NEVER seem to scratch. What's your secret?" "Well Bob, I use NEW MAXIMUM STRENGTH NUTS GUARD, it really works!!!" Or a feminine hygene spray....
What was my point again?
Nevermind.....I didn't have one.
"Doctor, it's not the voices I hear in MY head, but the voices I hear in YOUR head that really frighten me."
jhoffmann wrote:
some day all those quarters will be worth something.
Yeah, after a while they might even be worth twenty-five whole cents!
----
----
Open mind, insert foot.
I recently bought a new Philips TV, which, as per law, has the V-Chip in it. This all seemed rather silly to me, but I really liked the picture quality, so I bought the thing anyway.
So as soon as I got home, I decided to check it out. First off, it seemed very flakey who was sending the tagging as who wasn't. I set it to block TV-Y7-FV just to see what would happen, and found that if I was on Fox, and the power rangers came on, sometime it would blank, but other times I would have to switch channels, then switch back to get it to blank.
I was also immensly ammused that it did not block South Park, no matter what I tried. And, although you can set the TV to block specific channels, many people have DirectTV (including me), which seems to foil it rather well most of them time.
All in all it seems like a very under tested technology. I really question the idea of the V-Chip, but if you are going to do it, you had better to it right, or else no one will be happy.
and it isn't me. Some channels are in, some are out. Is that censorship? How is it different from the V-chip, besides that fact that I can turn the V-chip off?
now that you mention it - it wouldn't suprise me a bit if someone starts selling V-Chip blockers. It's rather like the telco who 1st sells someone "caller ID" so you can see who's calling, then turn around and sell someone else "caller ID blocking", so that people w/ caller ID can't tell who's calling!! In the end, you have two people paying you and their right back where they started. These are all basically forms of techno arms races - you sell one group weapons and then turn around and sell their opponents counter-weapons - the only ones who come out ahead are the arms suppliers selling 'upgrades' to one side to equalize the power differance caused by them 'upgrading' the other side.
Chuck
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
The v-chip blocking commercials, infommercials, and the often repeated station id ego might do more than protect little children. It would prevent my mind from rotting having to watch the senseless crap after already paying good money by the month for programming in the first place. Seems like they would have advertisements to support the advertisements if they could get away with it. Cable and satellite television is a big scam. Just wait until television will have interactive v-chips and require you to click on the ads to see the next scene. Its only a matter of time...
Jim Henson must be spinning in his grave.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
^^ Moderate him up.
:( But maby it isn't we ought to put our resources together first to hack the current one (this will force a new one to come out.. cause we arn't getting rid of it.. and on development of a new one we can jump up and offer to "help")
This is a great idea.. Its probably too late though
As someone who has been a father for over 18 years, I agree with you on principle, but unfortunately, the world is not so simple. Clearly, the ONLY way to really teach children is by example, however the reality is that there are legions of other forces fighting against you. Unfortunately, the world is not a nice place for the innocent, and I want every advantage I can get to help me instill a true sense of values within my children.
On the other hand, by now it's pretty much a moot point for me. At 15 and 19, both of my kids are at the point where they must learn to make their own decisions. Now it's time for me to sit back and hope that I've taught them well over the past years.
Your Servant, B. Baggins
I am not saying that parents should sit with their children %100 of the time while they watch TV, just that (as has been mentioned maybe ten billion times in the comments to this article already) that the TV is a bad bad replacement for child-parent interaction. Especially TV nowadays.
Maybe It is just me but it seems like when I was a child (late 70's early 80's, no so long ago, granted) Tv didn't suck so badly. Perhaps I am just older and more discrimiating now. Or maybe it was just that I didn't actually watch that much TV (mostly just saturday morning cartoons), and I actually went outside once in awhile and my parents read to me, and then suggested good books for me to read when I was old enough, and took me to the library and encouraged me to participate in this thing we call life instead of just giving up and ploppping me in front of the tube for hours on end...
I know of many many children (some in my family, cousins etc..) that come home from school and do nothing but TV/sega for six or seven hours until their parents make them go to bed.. I fear for the future when the majority of children are brought up this way..
Cheers!
They're probably just roommates. Do you have any idea what the rent is like on Sesame St?
[the Muppet posse is on stage at instruments. Kermit enters stage left]
Kermit: Hey there parents did you know, you don't even have to watch the show,
Just press a button, set the screen,
And your child will grow up to be a teen...
[kermit exits, set fades]
Announcer: Yes, it's true parents.. You just have to set the V-chip settings on your TV and you no longer have to censor what your kids watch, and if you can't figure it out... ASK YOUR KIDS!
[V-Chip logo appears, with the slogan 'Making TV safe for our (we mean your) Kids"]
/* CDM */
Still i find it a good idea to let your children look to the channels they should watch to. There is always a endless debate who should let the children know where they should watch to but, go imagine yourself
Children are curious
Still there are maybe things where a child is not ready for, like pure porn on television. For this there is a solution now on Television niveau, not on the decoder but the television.
I do not have children, so i leave the lock level at 0 but, imagine
A little bit open-minded thinking would really give issues in this world. They are not banning you know, they are improving some lock level that could be used to protect your children from certain content.
- Blood and gore - rating 1,
- splattering brains and blood - rating 2,
- soft porn - rating 3,
- hard porn - rating 4;
since thenAs long you try to think that this is NOT an invasion of privacy but a tool that can be used
Freaker / TuC
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Is it just me, or does it seem that Kermit the Frog, a little green puppet, is going just as many or more seemingly un-related promotions than basketball, baseball, golf (what else?) player, Michael Jordan? Kermit... has done the new US mints (the special, per-state ones), and now the V-chip? Is he going to pick up on hamburgers next?
Hacking or disabling the vchip itself would be quite pointless. Anyone who has the knowledge to implement such a hack would probably not have mommy and daddy censoring them based on the ratings.
As far as i can see, the only way to get around this would be to sabotage it at the network's systems, making all shows have the lowest rating, and I can't imagine that happening.
Nix absolutably seriousness.
The V chip doesnt just censor television; it will cause bland, tasteless TV-Y7 shows. Why would an advertiser want to advertise on a TV-MA show when it will be blocked out? Less viewers will see the ads, and advertisers will support the TV-Y7-whatever, resulting in no support for the "more mature" series. Good bye NYPD Blue, ER, etc.
GOD FORBID you actually try parenting your child instead of having the government do it for you. Parenting isn't a 9-5 job.
Gaelen
http://www.yellow5.com/pokey
I have a VCR that flashes 12:00 (two, both go --:--). Why? Too lazy to keep setting the things. Where I live, power outages > 1 hour happen a lot (not because of undercapacity. Because I live in a mixed overhead wire/underground line area, and idiots keep driving into power poles).
The effort required to reset the VCR's is tremendous: turn on TV. Press Menu. Go to Set up. Go to Clock. Adjust clock to current time. Press Menu. Turn off TV. Then boom. Next day, *another* blackout. I don't know about you, but I get really annoyed at having to set the blasted VCR every day for a week...
Plus, the people who use the vcr (not me) tend to play back movies rather than record (mine is auto time setting. Rather nice).
About the V-chip: Seems people here are knee-jerking again. Do you *HAVE* to use the vchip? Can you not set all the settings to the mode that corresponds "I want it all"?
Why aren't people angry at having to pay for something they don't use? (Although, I like the vchip-in-tv idea. At least it'll give the young'uns some electronics knowledge, rathern than the "Just unhook the wire here, hook it to this..." type knowledge).
Does anyone know enough TV electronics to contribute useful information on how to build this? I'd like to design it, and I do know about some related areas, but it's a low priority for me, since, though I hate censorship, I also hate television. :-)
I think that "Face It" is short hand for "I can't justify my position but everyone agrees with me anyway."
I have never said this on Slashdot before, but you are an idiot. Who appointed you the moral guardian of the media? Why are you uniquely endowed with insight as to what makes one expression meaningful and another garbage? To take an example you brought up, many people with three digit IQs are able to see a great deal of social commentary in South Park. Oh, but I forgot, it "violates all social norms", so therefore it's evil. We can't have people running around expressing new ideas, look what trouble that lunatic Galileo caused. As far as natrual rights, perhaps you should take a look at the First Amendment or its equivalent in other nations. It even protects your right to produce such anti-freedom fascist horse excrement.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
ideally, we could just censor all the ads on our tv's and life would be nice.
There is a way this can be done. I remember an old Zenith television that would mysteriously blank the screen when the advertisements would start. The only way to get the picture back was to cycle the power switch.
I later found out why the television was doing this. It was the "fade to black" video editing when they would switch to the advertisements that would trigger this event. There was something wrong with the blanking circuit on the television that would latch the whole picture for good when the darkness levels reached that threshold. Very few times during a movie would this happen. I would have to say it was quite a great misfeature in that old television; unfortunately, it worked for the video, not the audio that is the most annoying attribute of advertisements.
Its been a while since I worked on televisions, but if they still do fade to black editing at the levels like they used to, a simple circuit could be made to squelch the audio until a reset button or the next edit occurred. It would be a level detector connected to one of the video test pins usually found on the main board, connected to either a latch or a flip flop. Have a pushbutton to reset the state.
I will disregard your fourth paragraph except to note that you appear to be rather fond of name calling yourself.
Regarding your fifth paragraph, it is true that you did not advocate direct censorship. You do appear to be advocating indirect censorship, since the government requires vchips to be installed in all new TVs (and thus requires consumers to pay for them), intimidated broadcasters into the ratings system, and is incessantly producing anti-violence anti-sex anti-anything-controversial propaganda. And I have no idea how you got the idea that I wish your speech to be suppressed, since I specifically mentioned that freedom of speech (which I believe is a right and you appear not to) allows you to state your opinions, even though I profoundly disagree with them. Ever hear of Voltaire? (Oops, another allusion. Too bad, look it up.)
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
What to stop kids from simply turning off the V-Chip? I mean, kids often master programing the VCRs far before their parents do.
There must be a procedure for reseting the thing if you forget your password (Or PIN or Retna scan, whatever) So what stops kids from doing that?
Jim Henson really is dead.
Hey no one has to buy a TV with a V-Chip. And the point of these adds is that most people don't know
how to use it. The idea here is that you can turn the V-Chip *OFF*. Hey if you want to use it you can. But if you don't want to you don't have to.
If they made me use it I would have a problem with it. But they don't I have a TV without one. (Or maybe it does and I never found that page in my TV's manual).
If I had a kid maybe I would want a V-Chip. But even in that case I could turn it on or off as I wanted. I think that is a very reasonable way to do things.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
I've seen many repeated comments that TV/cable stations would never allow any kind of technology which would allow consumers to skip over ads, because the ads comprise their sole revenue stream.
How much would it cost for a TV/cable station to run a advertising-free service (or maybe a service with very limited avertising)? How much would people be willing to pay to subscribe to such a service?
It's bad because it lets parents abdicate their own responsibilities in favour of a shrink-wrapped child-rearing solution that doesn't work anyway. Meanwhile, once censorship gets its foot in the door, it starts to threaten adults too.
At some point, kids are going to be exposed to sex, violence and all of the other things that blue-haired people think will lead them to become serial killers. As a parent, you can either let them sneak around behind your back and discover and learn how to deal with these things on their own, or you can be the one to introduce it to them and help them put it into context.
If a kid really wants to see South Park, all the V chips in the world aren't likely to stop him/her. But if the parent takes the time to watch South Park *with* their kids and helps them put the content into some context, they'll most likely be ok.
When you think about it, if the censors are right about certain movies and TV shows influencing people's behaviour, nobody should be more depraved than the censors themselves. After all, they get to watch all the stuff that is too dangerous to let the general public see.
"Hand over yer wallet an' nobody gets hurt...."
They chose not to
As well they should.
and now slashdot-heads are up in arms about how their "rights" (there is no natural right here) are being infringed by asking that people be WARNED
If you want warnings, go read reviews. Complaining because other people didn't do your homework for you is one of the key indicators of luserhood.
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Kermit also will be annoucing the following:
= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Oscar the grouch will no longer be visible unless you have your V-chip set to a rating of Y7+ because parents feel he is too much like a homeless person and thus too scary.
Snuffalupagus will also no longer be visible without a TV-14 setting because of the phallic nature of his nasal appendage.
Elmo will not be visible without a setting of TV-MA due to the perverse nature of his tickle fetish.
Today was brought you by the letter V...
- JoeShmoe
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
You say that restricting the channels my television will display violates my childrens rights. Isn't not owning a television restricting their rights even further?
The owners of my cable system get to decide exactly what does and doesn't get broadcast. Why are their rights more important than mine?
Okay, I'll make it simple for you:
This was the most heart-rending headline I've read on Slashdot since Microsoft bought a big stake in Inprise. I can't believe dear old Kermit is a proponent of a form of censorship. Jim Henson struck me as someone interested in breaking down cultural barriers and endorsing new ways of looking at things.
I'd hate to see the Muppet Movie blocked for little children just because Rowlf says he "has a couple of beers, takes himself for a walk, and goes to bed," or that Doc Hopper wants to eat Kermit's legs.
I think that the biggest problem in most of modern culture is not that we have too much violence on tv but that our parents don't spend enough time with their children. That being said, is the V-Chip so bad? Sixteen-year-olds are able to get their parents to give them the password, or are able to get their own T.V. So their rights aren't infringed. Three-year- olds aren't able to watch blood and gore on TV. Is that so bad? Shows that are designed for Adults but which appeal to kids for the wrong reason (Southpark comes to mind) are at least a little harder for kids to get into. And all of you who are old enough still get to watch it. What's so bad about it again?
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
My new TV works with VChip. With a few buttons on the remote, you can require password access to a particular channel or rating, and/or see what rating the current program is.
Funny thing is, if you unplug the TV, it forgets what channels/ratings were locked. Oops. So any enterprising young child need only unplug all the clocks, reset the ratings before the parents return, or nail the circuit breaker to have free reign of the channels and no evidence of guilt. (This is a new JVC TV, for those who are curious).
More's the pity, too. From a business perspective, they shouldn't be biting the hand that feeds them, but from a helping-the-kids perspective
But because TV stations and most politicians can't afford to bite the hands that feed them, kids are being indoctrinated with the keeping-up-with-the-Jonses mentality at younger and younger ages. I'm surprised advertisers aren't trying to set up ad-screens a fetus can watch in vitro.
"Somebody exploded a letter-bomb today
It's just one step from voluntary use of blocking devices to mandatory use of them to censorship then finally to prior restraint. And then we'll have no way to voice ourselves.
Normally I'm against anything that can block information, but I kinda like this one. It tags shows with a content label (granted the current method of how it does this is horrible) which I can then use as a filter for my shows. The problem is that as it's implemented I can only use it in a way that fits someone else's idea of filtering.
Right now a program that questioned the basis of say a fundamental faith system would probably get some sort of adult tag. Maybe I want that type of program to be available to my child (yes I'm a parent), but not the program that blindly promotes that fundamental faith system. I'm sure we can all think of examples of this.
Now if it had a set of measures, like sex, nudity, violence, drug use, religous content, etc. I could then use it to filter programs as I wanted my child to be exposed to, not just deny everything that might be offensive to a group of people I don't know.
Granted we could add measures until the cows come home, but that might not be a bad thing either. I don't want my child to flip from barney to a porno flick, but I probably don't want her flicking to Videodrome or the angel channel either (well not for a few years). My solution will continue to be no TV, unless it's family time, for years to come.
The other side of this coin is that if parents are allowed to filter content in a way that makes them feel comfortable then we can start having any type of content that you can imagine on the open airwaves. Yes, that local UHF station that has been struggling for years can then show R, or maybe eventually NC-17, movies uncut (except commercials) to bring in the lucrative adult market. More choice without cable or satellite.
So I guess I'd have a set of measures that are from 1 to 5, and I can have a filter that I set like a graphic equalizer, but with a twist. When the little ones go off to bed make it so it filters out the other way. I really don't need to see barney, but debbie...
...just see if he is blinking S.O.S. during the broadcast. Oh wait, his eyelids don't move, do they? Hmm..probably why they didn't pick Big Bird.
I work "after dark" and when I get home to rest during the day, perhaps I should have the privilege of watching the programming I paid for, regardless of whether its "This Old House" or "Saving Private Ryan."
Personally, I prefer Batman: The Animated Series but that's me.
-Vel
Hmm... Let's see...
You've called me:
A fascist.
An idiot.
In order to support these assertions, you have alluded to the trial of Galileo and the Constitution: alluded to without actually citing.
In short, you are the logical end reult of a lifetime steeped in violence. You cannot reason, and when faced with reason resort to name calling.
Notice that I don't ask that ANYTHING be suppressed -- you seem to deeply desire that I be suppressed.
Oh... and something that mindlessly violates all social norms is not necessarily evil: just stupid and a waste of time. It is knee-jerk revolutionarism, not legitimate social commentary.
-- Slashdot sucks.
Arrrgh! Must be another outbreak of the Stupidity Virus...
Why is it that every time someone mentions rating systems and the possibility to filter TV based on content that there is this sudden outbreak of the Stupids??? Providing a rating mechanism for TV is no more about limiting choices than it is for movies. We are talking here about individuals being able to filter out what they consider to be trash. The fact that we have a rating system for movies gives us more choices: I don't restrict your right to go to XXX rated movies... so long as there is a mechanism in place to keep my children out. Rating a TV program doesn't limit your ability to watch that pornographic or violent show (unless you're visiting in my house). It does, however, allow me to have some control over what goes on in my house.
Sure - in a PERFECT world, parents would ALWAYS know what their children are doing, and what shows they are watching, and what their friends are watching, and what their friends' friends are watching on TV. However, we don't live in a perfect world, and we can't drag our children around on leashes. Personally, as a parent, I have to deal with the garbage my kids are exposed to every day. I need all the help I can get.
Your Servant, B. Baggins
Back when John Cleese used to pimp for Magnavox, they advertised an ad blocking tv. I think it cut the volume during ads, probably with a fade to black detector.
--
"L'IT c'est moi!"
Actually I think the V-Chip is a good idea. With it there is no reason for any censorship at the Network level. Now if they want to put full frontal nudity on TV what's stopping them? No child is going to stumble across it now, right?
Of course this still won't fly for broadcast TV, but it shouldn't be long before every cable channel becomes the Spice Channel.
This can't be by Kermit's own free will, he'd never do something like this.....where's the animal rights lobby when we need them? ;-)
Disney was in talks to buy Henson Associates and the related properties when Jim died. After hisdeath, those talks fell through. Henson has a good relationship with Disney -- Disney distributes their films and so on -- but they're still their own company.
No dont do it Kermit. Resist. FREEDOM!!!! Kermit must have a gun pointed at him, its just like those propaganda films they do with prisoners who have been captured. A truly sad day.
Check the time to penetration (marketing term, not mine) for media technologies. TV skyrocketed past radio and telephone...and it's largely suspected to be due to it's babysitting ability. You can plop the kids in front of it, and forget them for a few hours. Turn on, tune in, drop out. Now it's a way of life, and today's parents just raise their kids the way they were raised.
Kinda funny considering that one of Disney's ventures involves funding an Adult Entertainment studio. Fun for the whole family!
:)
Ok, so maybe this is flamebait...just no firebreathing mice, please.
-Vel
Fuzzy little muppets?!? Didn't you ever watch the Muppet Show - or, for that matter, the movies? Those "fuzzy little muppets" were pretty twisted, man... come to think of it, it seems somehow ironic that Kermit would be promoting a chip that would probably block his own shows and movies. After all, lessee here... Animal was a womanizer and a drug addict (hard drugs here, people), Kermit... well... I seem to recall a very tongue-in-cheek movie line about "bring home the bacon"... and I guess I don't even need to mention Crazy Harry or the fish guy (whose name I can't recall right now).
Sig broken, watch for
What I'm saying is that I still like the concept of being able to apply a filter to what is coming into my house. Once the fundamental mechanism is in place, we can work out the details of implementation. No one says you have to put a filter on your TV. It's just there for those of us who want it.
Your Servant, B. Baggins
Wee little problem w/ your Galileo thing, not only was he against the social norms, but he couldn't prove it either.
His basic idea was that since the earth is moving, if we take measurements of the angle at earth of the earth-sun and earth-otherstar triangle at 2 different times, they should be different. Although he is correct, his own measurements did not show this was true (the difference is _very_ small due to _very_ large distance to the otherstar)
And i bet you never learned of that in school, just that the church is bad and evil and didn't like what Galileo was saying and ruined his life because of that.
(Not that I'm justifying the actions of the church)
Ok i'll shut up now
Need a Catering Connection
Can I use the V-Chip to block out everything that :-)
is BELOW a certain rating -- Y, Y7, etc.? If
the V-Chip can guarantee that I will never
stumble over Barney or Pokemon it can't be all
bad.
I want all of the power and none of the responsibility.
Making Kermit the Frog speak for the V-chip is just evil. I'm royally pissed that someone would dare twist and manipulate one of the few cultural icons that was actually purely good.
I had a lot of respect for Kermit and what he represented. Now he's just another fucking puppet.
This is a truly ridiculous argument, like TV and books are an either/or proposition. Its the same as saying that everyone who uses a computer is an anti-social geek. And the idea that you should sit next to your kid every minute the TV is on is equally preposterous.
Is there anyone else who finds this tactic of using a children's character to explain the V-Chip insulting? I'm sure the content of the ad will be extremely dumbed-down--"Now press this button for no sex, then press this button for no violence"--kind of like the MacOS 'balloonhelp' for the V-Chip (not (really) a flame--I comparing the operating isntructions).
As a soon-to-father (any day now!) I resent having to have children's characters teach me how to use the V-Chip, as well as that the government thinks I do. Is this commentary on what the government thinks of the nation's intelligence, in general? Or is it true that parents need this sort of intellect-belittling hand-holding?
BTW, am I the only one who feels that children need to be taught what is approprate to watch through caring and good parenting, and not through technological mandates, or am I in the minority here?
darren
(darren)
Guys and Gals, I must say, I see NO problem with the VChip or Kermit representing it. Who cares.. You don't like it, don't use it.
I hate automatic transmitions in cars. Do I complain, No, I just use a standard.
Personally, when my son wakes up in the morning at 6:00, and I'm still half asleep, I'd prefer he COULDN'T watch something I don't want him to. Yes, I want to censor my 4 year old. GOD FORBID.
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..