V-Chip Still Wedged Firmly in FCC ‘In’ Basket

It’s the case of the missing V-chip. More than a year after the television industry began labeling shows according to their suitability for young audiences, the electronic blocking device that was supposed to link the ratings to TV sets is nowhere to be seen.

The V-chip has been delayed so long that many parents might not remember that the major purpose of the TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14 and TV-MA logos now displayed on their screens was to be a code for identifying potentially objectionable programs that they could tell their TV set not to show. That was the mandate of TV-ratings legislation passed by Congress in 1996, and it was widely expected that the devices would be in TV sets early this year.

Instead, the Federal Communications Commission has yet to approve the ratings system that the industry adopted or to set the technical standards for how the blocking circuitry would work.

“We have to wait for the Federal Communications Commission to act before we can put V-chips in TV sets,” explains Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Assn., the trade group for TV set manufacturers, which submitted its proposed technical standards last September.

Even if the regulatory agency acts next month, as FCC Chairman William E. Kennard is promising, manufacturers say it will take 12 to 18 months to have the V-chip devices installed in all new TV sets, as Congress mandated. (Converter boxes that attach to the TV from the outside could be available to provide the blocking technology within three months of an FCC decision, however.)

“We’re moving as quickly as we can,” said Susan Fox, Kennard’s chief legal counsel. “We know that the manufacturers need certainty on this.”

Why the delay? It’s a combination of factors. For one thing, the age-based guidelines that went into effect Jan. 1, 1997, became the subject of controversy in Washington, with most of the industry ultimately agreeing to provide additional content information. The original labels now sometimes also carry the letters S, V, L or D, alerting parents that the program contains sex, violence, coarse language or suggestive dialogue.

And just as the enhanced ratings were taking effect Oct. 1 (except on NBC, which opposed providing the additional labels), the five-member FCC was getting a new chairman and three new commissioners.

“The TV industry had expected FCC approval several months ago,” says one executive. “But by the time the new bureaucracy got rolling, a lot of time had passed.”

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who introduced the original V-chip measure in Congress in 1993, welcomed the FCC’s decision to set a date for deciding on V-chip standards and said he hopes some manufacturers will move to have V-chips in their TV sets in time for Christmas, which is the busiest time of year for purchasing new sets.

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Some observers have wondered how the FCC, in setting the V-chip technical standards, will deal with the fact that NBC transmits only the age-based ratings and not the S, V, L and D designations. (Actually, this applies to more than NBC, since other TV distributors often use only the age-based rating, adding the other letters only when they feel a special warning is called for.)

Shapiro said that should not be a problem because the chips can be programmed to respond both to the age-based categories as a whole--blocking all TV-14 and TV-MA programs, for example--or to any of the various permutations of the content categories, so that some parents could approve TV-14 programs with sexual content but not with violence, and others might choose just the opposite.

NBC thus could be hurt or helped by its decision to not transmit the content-based symbols. In theory, parents could punish NBC by blocking out an entire category--say, TV-14--when it’s really only TV-14-S or TV-14-V that they don’t want their kids to see. But NBC might benefit if parents seek to block only programs that carry a V or S designator because none of the network’s programs carries those labels.

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The children’s advocates who lobbied for the additional labels for program content are hoping that parents will notice that NBC isn’t participating once the V-chip is in place--and will pressure NBC to add the extra symbols. NBC maintains that it provides sufficient information to parents through the age-based labels and occasional on-screen advisories.

Meanwhile, the cable television industry last week unveiled a nine-minute video and a brochure that it is making available to parents for free to help them understand and use the ratings system. The video is hosted by Bob Keeshan, the original Captain Kangaroo, and may be obtained through local cable operators or the National Cable Television Assn. in Washington.