Smart Television Alliance: The V-Chip and Children's Television

Solutions > The V-Chip and Children's Television

V-Chip

Since 2000, all new television sets have been required to include the V-chip, technology which allows parents to block programs based on a show’s ratings. The perfect solution, right? Not quite. And we’re not the only ones who think the V-chip has fallen way short of expectations. Even the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the government agency responsible for monitoring the television industry, recently described V-chip technology as “a failure.”

Tune In To These Facts

Only fifteen percent of parents have used the V-chip, according to a 2004 Kaiser Family Foundation telephone survey. That same survey found that 39 percent of parents didn’t even know their TV had a V-chip installed, and additional 20 percent of parents knew about the V-chip, but decided against using it.
In a 1999 survey [in PDF], the Annenberg Public Policy Center gave V-chip enabled televisions to 110 families and even trained parents how to use them. At the end of one year, only eight percent of families were still using them.

More Info

The government agency responsible for monitoring the television industry, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), describes the V-Chip technology as a failure in the 2007 report, In the Matter of Violent Television Programming and Its Impact on Children [in PDF].
Learn more about the V-Chip.


	The Solutions
	V-Chip » Rating System »	E/I Programming » Government Regulation »

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