Can TiVo know what kids need?

Television watchdogs of all stripes are jumping on the bandwagon of a new parental control package that promises to help parents separate “good” programs from all the rest. The prescreened system from TiVo, called KidZone, uses age-based recommendations from diverse interest groups to help parents cherry-pick which live and recorded shows come into their homes.

Two weeks ago, TiVo announced that the conservative grass-roots Parents Television Council and the more moderate nonpartisan Common Sense Media will each submit a list of recommended programs that parents could either adopt or customize on KidZone. Their list of shows could then be recorded and accessed with a password.

On Tuesday, TiVo executives announced that two more sets of guidelines -- a menu of children’s educational and informational programs and a list from the learning-focused Parents’ Choice Foundation -- will also be available on TiVo when the system launches in June.

Other groups, including religious-based organizations, are coming forward with menus for KidZone, said Tom Rogers, TiVo’s chief executive officer. The goal is to offer a variety of sources, with others added when appropriate, executives said.

What constitutes “good” programming, of course, has been the subject of passionate debate for decades among child advocates, parents, policymakers and industry executives. Rogers, who served in the 1980s as counsel to the Telecommunications Committee of the House of Representatives, says TiVo’s private sector solution balances all the interests. Over the last 20 years, he said, the issues have only become more difficult and complex.

KidZone appears at a time when the nation’s lawmakers are threatening to impose decency standards on cable and satellite providers similar to those faced by broadcast networks. In response, top cable operators and satellite companies have agreed to offer their customers family tiers -- bundles of programs devoid of explicit sex, violence and profanity. The TiVo program resolves one complaint about the family-tier system in that adult programs can still be recorded and accessed with a password, Rogers said.

Many parents trying to control what their kids watch have been frustrated by previous solutions such as the V-chip, which blocks programming according to government-approved TV ratings labels applied by the networks. Meanwhile, government-mandated educational and informational programming, which network broadcasters have been required to air since 1990, is sometimes aired at odd hours and can strain the definition of “educational.”

Claire Green, president of the Parents’ Choice Foundation, the nation’s oldest not-for-profit evaluator of children’s media and toys, said there are plenty of good television shows for children, but the volume of programs alone makes finding them a daunting task for any individual.

“If one had to wade through the TV Guide and the plethora of programs, 24-hour networks, pay per view and broadcast shows, it’s a life’s work,” she said. “There are so many choices available, we feel the information about the choices is as important as the choices themselves.”

Until now, parents who trusted the recommendations of the Parents Television Council, Parents’ Choice Foundation or Common Sense Media could find those groups’ guidelines only on their websites or through newsletters.

The details of how the various recommendations will work are still being developed, TiVo executives said. Judging from the guidelines posted online, it’s clear that the groups each have their own criteria and don’t necessarily even rate the same shows.

Common Sense rates the Fox show “24” as 14-plus (appropriate for children age 14 and older), whereas the Parents Television Council says the show’s violence makes it inappropriate for children of any age. “SpongeBob SquarePants” is not rated on the PTC site, but it received a 6-plus rating from Common Sense. “Reading Rainbow” and “Between the Lions,” both Parents’ Choice recommendations for 4-year-olds, were not rated by PTC, which focused on more mature-oriented programs such as “Alias” and “Lost.”

Not everyone is thrilled by the advent of a digital filter with recommendations from interest groups.

Jim Dyke, executive director of TV Watch, a coalition of diverse groups that opposes government intervention sought by the Parents Television Council, concedes the value of providing more content information to parents, but said there’s no substitute for parents deciding for themselves what their children should watch.

The TiVo system, he said, reduces parental involvement. “You need to know less because the Parents Television Council is telling you what’s OK.”