Jim Dyke, the Executive Director of TV Watch, believes that parents, not the government, should have the ultimate say on what children see on television, and is encouraged that this appears to mirror the way the Obama administration sees it. Dyke noted, “As a candidate, President Barack Obama said, ‘Turn off the television, turn off the video games…government can’t do everything.’ Parents want to effectively manage what their children are watching on television. 86% of parents believe more parental involvement is the best way to keep kids from seeing what they shouldn’t see on television.”
Dyke stressed the use of the ratings systems and the blocking technologies available from cable companies, satellite companies and via the television sets very own v-chip as a far preferable alternative to government content regulation.
“With an administration stressing the importance of personal responsibility and increased awareness of media technologies, we are confident that parents will be empowered to be firmly in control of what their families watch.”
RBR/TVBR observation: As a routine part of reporting on broadcast issues, we see the kinds of programming that get people worked up. Sometimes we agree; usually we do not. We defend the right of the complainers to complain. We cease to defend them when they try to inflict their own subjective judgments on our own program options. Complainers, your receiver has channel changing capability – use it. Better still, block it! But leave our set alone.
