From January 1 2000, every TV set in the US has had to have something called a “V Chip” built into it. Effectively this is a parental control system similar to those found on systems such as Sky digiboxes, that allows parents to limit what their children are allowed to watch.
A rating code for every TV programme is broadcast in line 21 of the analogue signal, and the “V Chip” can block you watching that programme dependent on how the parental controls are set up on the TV’s menu.
All well and good.
But my sister recently bought a TV in the US – it was a shop-soiled display model bought at a discount – and she’s been happily using it for the last few months. Like nearly the entire US, she’s not bothered with using the V Chip system. In her case, there are no children that she has to protect, but surveys have shown that nobody bothers with the system.
Anyway, for the last couple of weeks, as the race to the White House hots up, every time a Barack Obama add comes on her screen it’s suddenly blocked.
“The ad starts… ‘my name is Bara…’ and then goes black, says ‘blocked’ with a 4 or 5 *s on it.”
Hiliary Clinton’s ads are just fine. She wondered if it was something happening at the local cable company, or even someone in her building doing it.
I’m pretty sure that it’s not evil Clinton apparatchiks stopping the ads. I’m told that its likely that somebody at a post production house, perhaps adding closed caption data, screwed up, and put some kind of rating on these ads.
At the moment, I’m not 100% certain that this is the problem, but it seems the likeliest. Unfortunately, the remote sold with my sister’s TV is not the correct one for that model, so getting into the menu system to check (and possibly unlock) is going to be difficult.
But it’s worrying to think that all those concerned parents may be inadvertently be blocking Obama ads!
I always find the puritanical nature of American broadcasting remarkable given the large legal pornography industry that they have. And while a parental control system is to be welcomed, they still insist on fining ABC millions of dollars for showing a tiny bit of nudity on an old episode of NYPD Blue, which was broadcast past 9pm at night.