Every Family Has Easy To Use Parental Controls

[Candy]

This email is actually spam but I thought it was interesting. It definately relates to some of the challenges our industry is facing.

"Every Family Has Easy To Use Parental Controls

Since 2000, more than 119 million televisions containing the v-chip have been sold for 109 million households providing the tools for parents to manage what their family watches on TV. Content ratings, which program the v-chip or other cable or satellite blocking technology, mark every television program and allow parents to make informed decisions and enforce those decisions.

TV Parental controls make it easy for parents to control what their kids watch

With input from family and children’s advocacy groups, Congress, the FCC, television broadcasters, cable systems and television producers, the broadcasting industry began using a voluntary program ratings system in 1998. The set of ratings labels was created to help parents determine which television programs are suitable for their children.

TV ratings appear on the television screen and in many TV schedules.
TV ratings have two ratings for programs designed for children (TV-Y and TV-Y7) and four ratings for all audiences (TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA).
Setting parental controls is similar to setting any other electronics..
Parents use tools to manage what their kids see on TV

Ninety-one percent of parents say they personally take some steps to manage what their children see on TV.
Parents who wish to protect their children from objectionable TV content have at their disposal a variety of tools:
63 percent watch television with their children
61 percent limit TV watching to certain shows, and 55 percent to certain times
52 percent use TV ratings
17 percent use cable controls, 12 percent use satellite controls, 5 percent use the v-chip
Every household is different

Sixty-eight percent of the country’s 110 million television-viewing households do not include children under age 18.
And households with children have different challenges


There are 11 million households with children age 6-11
There are 15 million households with children age 0-5
There are 9 million households with children 12-17
About TV Watch

TV Watch was launched in May 2005 as a coalition of individuals and organizations to promote the use of parental controls and to support the views of the majority of Americans who prefer individual control of TV content to increased government regulation. TV Watch consists of 27 prominent individuals and organizations representing more than 4 million Americans.

More information is available at http://www.televisionwatch.org/."

[chadknowslaw]

My parents had great controls--one television in the house, we only got 3 channels [sometimes 4] plus PBS, and they were either in the room watching with us or else they were in the next room.

The best controls are the parents knowing what their kids are watching.

[basschick]

the v chip - as i recall, acacia owned that patent.

i'm a big fan of parents actually watching a little of a show their children want to watch. after all, you may find something objectionable in a show even if it is rated G.