Rating Systems, Television

It has long been lamented that television is an information and entertainment technology less easily controlled by parents than other modes of storytelling. The ubiquitous nature of television, as well as its variety, vivacity, and popularity, has made it particularly difficult to limit children’s access to ideas and images with which their caregivers might disagree. Early research on the parental mediation of television consistently found that fewer than half of all parents forbade exposure to certain “adult” or “offensive” shows or set limits on viewing, despite their concerns about the nature and quantity of the content being viewed by their children. As television set saturation, cable access, and broadcast network options increased between the 1960s and 2000s and as the entertainment industry’s promotion of inappropriate ...