New V-Chip and TV Ratings Study Release

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

News Release
                
FEW PARENTS USE V-CHIP TO BLOCK TV SEX AND VIOLENCE, BUT MORE THAN
HALF USE TV RATINGS TO PICK WHAT KIDS CAN WATCH

Parents Worried About Sexual and Violent Images on TV but Split Over
Uniform Ratings and Government Regulation

 http://www.kff.org/content/2001/3158/

Menlo Park, CA - Forty percent of American parents now own a TV
equipped with a V-Chip, according to a new survey by the Kaiser
Family Foundation. However, despite high levels of concern about
children's exposure to TV sex and violence, just 17% of parents who
own a V-Chip - or 7% of all parents - are using it to block programs
with sexual or violent content. In contrast, more than half of all
parents have consulted TV ratings to decide which shows their kids
can watch. "A year and a half after its introduction, the V-Chip is
being used by a small minority of parents; TV ratings are more of a
mainstream resource for concerned moms and dads," said Drew Altman,
Ph.D., president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. 

V-Chip Awareness and Usage

The survey found that more than half (53%) of parents who now own a
V-Chip - those who bought TVs after V-Chips became standard equipment
in January 2000 - do not know that their TV is equipped. Among
parents who know they own a V-Chip, about one in three (36%) has
programmed it to block shows they do not want their children to
watch, while 64% have not used it.

The V-Chip became available in 1999 and has been a required part of
nearly all new TV sets since January 2000. It lets parents use a
ratings system, introduced by the TV industry in 1997, to block
certain programs with sexual, violent, or age-sensitive content. To
use the V-Chip, parents must choose to activate and program it. 

Ratings and Regulation

A majority of American parents (56%) reports having used the TV
ratings system to make decisions about what their children are
allowed to watch. Usage levels are similar for parental advisories on
music (50%) and video and computer games (59%), and much higher for
movie ratings (84%). Nearly all parents (92%) who have consulted TV
ratings find them useful: 48% say they are "very useful," and 44% say
they are "somewhat useful," which is similar to satisfaction levels
with other kinds of ratings. At the same time, many parents who have
used TV ratings do not feel they are always applied accurately: half
(51%) say that most shows are being rated in a way that accurately
reflects their content, while 40% say most shows are not accurately
rated.

Two out of five parents (40%) say that a uniform ratings system for
all forms of media would be "more useful" than the current approach,
in which each medium is rated differently. About the same proportion
of parents (38%) say a uniform system "wouldn't make much
difference," and 17% say it would be "less useful." Parents are also
divided about whether government should regulate TV content. About
half of all parents (48%) favor and about half (47%) oppose "new
government regulations to limit the amount of violence and sexual
content in TV shows during the early evening hours."

"American parents are clearly worried about what their children are
watching and how it affects them. But when it comes to how to limit
sex and violence on TV, parents are far from unanimous," said
Victoria Rideout, vice president and director of the Program for the
Study of Entertainment Media and Health at the Kaiser Family
Foundation. 

Concerns About TV Sex and Violence

More than four out of five parents are concerned that their children
are being exposed to too much sex and violence on TV: 63% are "a
great deal" concerned and 18% are "somewhat" concerned about too much
sexual content; 59% are "a great deal" and 23% are "somewhat"
concerned about violent content. These high levels of concern appear
to reflect the belief that TV affects children's behavior. Nearly
half of parents (48%) say they believe that exposure to sexual
content on TV contributes "a lot" to children's getting involved in
sexual situations too early. Similarly, 47% of parents think
children's exposure to violence on TV contributes "a lot" to violent
behavior. 

Confusion About TV Ratings

While many parents have used TV ratings to some degree, the survey
finds confusion about key elements of the current ratings system.
More than half of parents with children ages two to six do not
understand or have never heard of the ratings designed for this age
group (TV-Y7 for children 7 and older, TV-Y for all children, and FV
for fantasy violence). In contrast, about two out of three parents
with children of all ages can correctly identify the age-based
ratings, which is similar to movie ratings (TV-14 for children 14 and
older, TV-G for all children, and TV-PG for parental guidance
suggested). In addition to these age-based ratings, there are others
that refer to specific kinds of content. Parents' understanding of
this content-based part of the rating system ranges from just 5% for
the D rating (suggestive dialogue) to 62% for V (violence). 

Survey Methodology

Parents and the V-Chip 2001 is a nationally representative, random
sample survey of 800 parents of children ages 2-17. The survey was
designed by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Princeton Survey
Research Associates (PSRA), and analyzed by staff at the Foundation.
Fieldwork was conducted by PSRA by telephone between May 7 and June
6, 2001. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 4
percentage points, and plus or minus 6 percentage points for parents
of children ages 2-6. 

Additional copies of the summary and toplines (#3158) are available
on the Kaiser Family Foundation's web site at www.kff.org or by
calling the Foundation's Publication Request Line at 1-800-656-4533.

The Kaiser Family Foundation is an independent, national health
philanthropy dedicated to providing information and analysis on
health issues to policymakers, the media, and the general public. The
Foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser
Industries. 


=====
David Goldstein
email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
phone: +61 418 228 605 (mobile)

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