TV Makers To Meet V-Chip Deadline
By EUN-KYUNG KIM, AP - June 12 '99
WASHINGTON (AP) - Most television manufacturers have put v-chips in
at least half their new sets and should have few problems meeting a year-end deadline to
install the blocking technology in all new televisions, federal regulators said Wednesday.
V-chips are intended to give viewers, primarily parents, the option of blocking
shows they find objectionable. A 1996 telecommunications law requires that all new TV sets
13 inches and larger must be equipped with v-chip by the year 2000. Last year, the
Federal Communications Commission imposed a July 1 deadline on manufacturers to install
the technology in at least half their new sets. Nearly all of them met the deadline, FCC
Commissioner Gloria Tristani said.
``The v-chip is about to become a reality,'' she said during a news conference
where the technology was demonstrated. The manufacturers in compliance represent 90
percent of all television sets sold in the country. Information was not available on the
remaining 10 percent, but Tristani added that ``we have no reason to believe they won't
comply with the deadlines.'' Panasonic announced that all of its 1999 sets are 100
percent compliant with v-chip integration.
The v-chip works in coordination with an electronically coded TV ratings system.
Most television and cable networks use letter notations or age-based ratings to flag
violence, sexual situations, crude language and suggestive dialogue.
Tristani took aim at recent reports claiming that parents were slow to embrace
the v-chip, saying ``the system hasn't even been in place yet.''
``Let's give the v-chip a chance before we rush to any judgments about what
parents want,'' she said.
Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association,
announced his organization has launched a publicity campaign intended to educate consumers
about v-chips and how they work.
The group will create a logo and sticker that retailers can use to help people
identify v-chip equipped television sets.
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