V-Chip Research Paper

The V-Chip Checkpoint

The V-Chip had quite an impact on television since it has been introduced. The whole point of the V-Chip was to regulate what children watch on television by making a rating system so the parent has all the power to choose what their kids will watch on television. If for some reason there is a television show that is being questioned by a parent, that parent can contact the local station the show plays on to file a complaint in hopes they re-rate the rating that show has received. The V-chip can be very effective at protecting kids from certain type of television shows but it is hard to personalize a show to completely fall in to a parent’s acceptable manner. The V-chip does not replace the parent and it’s that
parent’s job to ensure that the shows their kids are watching are appropriate. As you have seen with movies, there has always been a rating system but they are even doing this with video games now as well. I don’t see any negative issues with filtering video game systems with a V-chip like device because there are some pretty adult oriented video games out there. Depending on what kind of live broadcast you are watching i.e. a live news show or a live talk show, there should be some sort of rating in place that can be used as a catch all. Live news casts are pretty clean for the most part but some of the stories they can cover could raise questions from your kids that should not be asked. As for other technologies that could be used for this same purpose such as live broadcast, I don’t know of any except the power of parenting. Again it is your ultimate responsibility to filter what your kids watch on TV.