Parental Control Advice

With the huge number of TV channels and programs it has become difficult for parents to monitor their children and know what programs their kids watch. Parents are more concerned about what their children are watching and what TV channels and programs are appropriate for kids’ viewing.

Today most televisions are telecasting shows and live shows which are unsuitable for children. Children like to watch television programs but they don’t know which channels are showing programs which are not for children.

To prevent children from seeing explicitly showing adult TV programs the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) has rated TV channels with the following signs, which are as follows:

• TV-Y: All children.
• TV-Y7: Children 7 and up.
• TV-G: General audience – suitable for children and adults.
• TV-PG: Parental guidance suggested – violence, sexual situations, coarse language and/or suggestive dialogue.
• TV-14: Parents strongly cautioned – intense violence, sexual situations, coarse language and/or suggestive dialogue.
• TV-MA: Mature Audience Only – graphic violence, explicit sexual content and/or offensive language.

Federal Communications commissions has also given the content categories, which are as follows:

In addition to the above television ratings, the FCC also has blanket categories for all television. Thus allow the administrator to block out various unnecessary TV channels which are unsuitable for children. Here is a list of the FCC categorised list:

• FV: Fantasy violence or cartoon violence
• D: Sexual dialogue
• L: Offensive language
• S: Sexual content
• V: Violence

Please check out this list also, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Ratings:

• G: General audience. All ages admitted.
• PG: Parental guidance suggested. Some material not suitable for small children.
• PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material inappropriate for children under 13.
• R: Restricted. Entrance for people under 17 years of age requires parent of guardian present.
• NC-17: Not classified. No one under 17 years of ages admitted.
  X: Adults only.
• NR: Not rated. Film was too intense to warrant a MPAA rating.

We have mentioned above the FCC ratings for TV channels and now it is your turn to prevent your children from seeing adult TV channels. How it is possible? It is very simple, the technology has also introduced the V-Chip, referred to as parental control on TV or TV parental control. This chip gives parents an opportunity to block the unwanted TV channels from the reach of their children. Parents can simply block the unwanted TV channels with a four digit password or PIN. Chip technology was addressed in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which targeted the growing amount of violence, language and nudity on television.

V-Chip (parental control electronic device/TV parental control) works in conjunction with your television, VCR and cable box. This V-Chip give you eligibility to give ratings to the TV channels and block inappropriate TV programs which you want to keep out of your children’s reach. When you set the ratings for all the channels in your television the V-Chip will automatically deny access to programs which exceeds your preset ratings limitation.

With the help of your advices and suggestions, this web site; Parental Control Advice, will help parents to find solution to this hot issue. We appreciate the time you spend here.