Finally, Some Light for Parents in the TV Issue

Virtually all processed foods in the supermarket have a “nutrition facts” label providing specific information about carbohydrates, cholesterol and other constituents. Logic would dictate that television shows, being consumer products too, be labeled similarly. But when the TV networks unveiled their age-based ratings earlier this year, the ratings bore more resemblance to cryptograms than to soup labels.

Because the ratings were arbitrary about age suitability and silent about content, what appeared on screen was of little help to parents who, for instance, wanted to keep their kids from seeing bloody shotgun battles but were less concerned about displays of sexual affection.

Now, after six months of negotiations with parents’ and children’s groups like the PTA and the American Academy of Pediatrics, all but one major TV network have agreed to supplement their age-based ratings with specific codes for violence (V), sexual content (S), dialogue not suitable for children (D) and fantasy or cartoon violence (FV, applied mostly to children’s shows). In return for agreeing to implement this voluntary system by Oct. 1, a key group of federal legislators promised not to revisit the ratings issue for at least three years.

The one holdout, NBC, says the new agreement infringes on its 1st Amendment right to free speech, an argument also raised by guilds representing directors, actors and writers. Baloney. Content disclosure does nothing to curb free speech and is surely no different in kind from the age-based ratings that NBC and the guilds readily accepted. Given that the broadcast airwaves are a public trust, it is hardly unconstitutional to give the public a viable method of judging what’s coming into homes.

The guilds would do far better to help set up the new ratings, for many difficult questions remain. Program producers and distributors will decide the ratings, as they do under the present age-based system, with some oversight from an industry monitoring board. One of the questions that must be decided is how, or whether, “literary” violence, such as in Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust movie “Schindler’s List,” should be distinguished from “gratuitous” violence.

Congress asked the networks in 1995 to develop a ratings system around the so-called V-chip, a technology that would allow consumers to program their TV sets to bar certain categories of shows on the basis of a signal sent by broadcasters. The technology, which will finally be available in TV sets around Christmas 1998, means consumers will be able to decide in advance what kinds of information and entertainment come into their living rooms. The ratings system agreed to Thursday provides information crucial to successful use of the V-chip.

Viewers will not give up their ability to choose. Increasing consumer choice is an inexorable trend, as evident in the software that enables us to filter what comes in over the Internet. Television broadcasters and program creators will benefit from embracing the technology rather than trying to hold back the flood.