THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 1, 1996 TAG: 9603010484
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Under pressure from parents and politicians, the television industry promised Thursday to devise a ratings system to warn of violence and sex.
President Clinton pressed his interest in requiring stations to air at least three hours a week of educational programs for children.
``It is not enough for parents to be able to tune out what they don't want their children to watch,'' Clinton said. ``They want to be able to tune in good programs that their children will watch.''
Though the broadcasting industry opposes such quotas, TV executives told reporters that they are interested in improving the quality of programming.
A task force of TV executives will begin work today to devise ratings criteria and symbols, and decide what will and won't be rated.
TV executives envision a system like the one used for movies, but they are a long way from agreement on whether cartoons and news magazine shows should be rated and how to rate soap operas.
Industry executives privately insist news and sports programs won't be rated, but no decision had been made, said the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti, who is overseeing the ratings effort.
A new law urges - but doesn't force - the TV industry to rate programs. The ratings, however, are critical to another requirement of the law: that new TV sets be equipped with the v-chip. With a remote-control-like device, a person can block such programs from appearing on the TV screen. Without the ratings, the v-chip is useless. by CNB