In 1996, broadcasters, cable providers and the Motion Picture Association of America adopted a television rating system to inform consumers about program content based on “age-appropriateness.”

These “TV Parental Guidelines,” (that is, the distracting capital letters displayed in the corner of your TV screen for the first fifteen seconds of a program) are supposed to help you decide whether a show is suitable for your kids.

But here’s the problem(s):

• Many consumers don’t understand the rating system. Y? FV? Huh?
• No uniform rating symbol is required, so the ratings appear differently, depending on which channel you’re watching.
• Ratings are the responsibility of each show’s producers, not an independent third party, so there’s no consistency from show to show or even from one episode to the next.
• Ratings don’t apply to news, sports programming and commercials.
  

Tune In To The Facts In an April 2007 report, the FCC declared that the TV ratings system is “not effective.” Only 8 percent of respondents in a March 2007 Zogby International poll were able to correctly identify “content descriptors.” (And no wonder: “L” for “infrequent coarse language” isn’t exactly intuitive.) 50 percent of age and content ratings that appear at the beginning of each program are different than those published in TV Guide, according to a 2007 Michigan State University study.

More Info According to a 1996 survey published by University of Wisconsin-Madison, 80% of parents said they would prefer a content-based rating system, not the age-based system that was adopted. Want more information about the ratings system? Or to file a complaint? Here’s how: TV Parental Guidelines Post Office Box 14097 Washington, DC 20004 202-879-9364 email: tvomb@usa.net

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