THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602130045
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
IF YOU DON'T know a V-chip from a chocolate chip, it's time you learned. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has been signed into law, requiring manufacturers to install microcircuitry - the V-chip - in TV sets with 13-inch screens and larger to detect programs unsuitable for kids.
Is there such a thing as a V-chip? Or does it exist only in the minds of politicians kissing up to voters in this election year?
While the V-chip is years away from the assembly lines at Sony, Zenith or other manufacturers, its cousin is already here. It's the tiny circuit used in equipping sets for closed captioning-extended data service which makes use of vertical blanking intervals.
You don't have to swallow all of that technical stuff. Just remember that the V-chip will happen.
The V-chip is more than two years away, said Cynthia Upson, staff vice president of the Electronic Industries Association in Washington, D.C.
How big a deal is it to design and install such a circuit into a TV set? A piece of cake, she said.
``A TV set is a dumb unit that sits there and waits for you to tell it to do something,'' she said. ``It won't take long for manufacturers to work out how to send a signal to a TV to block out what you want blocked out.''
And the cost of such push-button censorship?
Figure between $5 and $40, depending on the TV set. Chances are, said Upson, that you'll be able to activate the V-chip by wireless remote control, the same as you go channel surfing today.
No way you can install the V-chip in sets already in use, she said. (Cable companies, which use set-top boxes, figured out how to block unsuitable channels ages ago).
And, the V-chip could be stopped in the courts. For the V-chip to work, television will need a system to rate the programs similar to what we have for feature films. The networks hate the idea so much, they are threatening to sue to keep the V-chip out of your home.
At the moment, only some films and two weekly programs - ``NYPD Blue'' on ABC and ``Cops'' in syndication - come with warnings of violence, nudity and rough language ahead. In effect, these TV shows are rated R.
But how can a board or panel be expected to watch hundreds of hours of programming and rate them in time for weekly viewing? Will Dan Rather's news be rated for violence? Professional wrestling? Or worse, those savage he-man competitions on pay-per-view?
What about the sexy soap operas? Should they be blocked from coming into a home when only children are there?
The V-chip legislation is seriously flawed, said EIA president Eddie Fritts in Broadcasting & Cable Magazine. Amen, said producers and network executives with whom I crossed paths in Southern California not long ago.
Tom Fontana, executive producer of NBC's ``Homicide: Life on the Street,'' abhors ratings or censorship of any kind.
``When violence is appropriate, it should be done on television,'' said Fontana. Dick Wolf, who produces two cop shows on network television, fears that many series would be ``V-chipped to death.'' That includes his popular and critically acclaimed ``Law & Order.''
The V-chip is coming fast, and a TV ratings system will follow. That's the law. This happened because the networks did not heed the warnings of senators and congressmen who said, ``Cut the sex and violence or else.''
The networks talked a good game of self-censorship, self-control. But when it's time for ratings sweeps, and millions of dollars of advertising revenue is on the table, the networks will program whatever brings the biggest viewership.
``Sliver'' is on ABC this week. The film has violence and eroticism. If you had the V-chip in your house today, would you use it to keep your kids from seeing Sharon Stone, William Baldwin and Tom Berenger wallow in decadence?
The V-chip is an idea whose time has come. by CNB