Television Rating Systems

As part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, Congress gave television industry representatives a year to develop a system to rate television programming. Establishing a ratings system was necessary to make the V-chip (violence chip) provision of the 1996 act possible. The rating assigned to each episode is transmitted electronically along with the program, allowing parents to use the V-chip to block shows they don't want their children to view. If the broadcast industry had failed to produce a workable rating system after a year, Congress left open the possibility of an outside body developing a way to rate programming.

The television rating system, developed by the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Cable Television Association, and the Motion Picture Association of America, is referred to as the TV Parental Guidelines. In addition to transmitting ratings electronically to enable V-chip operation, the ratings are provided in TV listings and are flashed on the screen for the first 15 minutes of each program. Broadcast and cable networks began applying the rating system in 1997.

There are two components to the program ratings. The first provides an age-based recommendation as to the appropriateness of each episode of a TV show. It is comparable to the motion picture rating system. The second part of an episode's rating provides labels to indicate specific content parents might find to be objectionable.

Six age designations are used. They include TV-Y, programs suitable for all children; TV-Y7, for children 7 years and older because at this age, children are more likely to be able to distinguish between reality and make-believe; TV-G, programs suitable for a general audience although not specifically tailored to children; TV-PG, when parental coviewing is advisable for younger children; TV-14, unsuitable for preteen and younger audiences; and TV-MA, programming solely for an adult audience. Very few programs are assigned this last rating.

The age-based rating system was the only component of the TV content ratings when it was initially implemented. Quickly, however, there was concern that these ratings did not provide sufficient information for parents to make informed decisions about their children's viewing choices. Within a year, content categories were added to the age-based labels. The content categories are V (violence), S (sexual situations), L (coarse or crude language), D (suggestive dialogue, usually sexual), and FV (fantasy violence). The content categories are used as an addition to the age-based designations.

To avoid First Amendment challenges likely to accompany direct government involvement in program content, the ratings are assigned either by the program producers who create the TV shows or by the networks that air them. Each episode is rated independently, so a particular television program's rating can vary from week to week. News programming and sportscasts are not rated, but all other types of programming are. Although the ratings system is officially voluntary, all of the broadcast networks rate their programming, as do the vast majority of cable channels.

Proponents argue that the rating system, in combination with the V-chip, gives parents a useful tool to protect children from content the parents decide is inappropriate. But critics challenge the effectiveness of the ratings system and V-chip. The operation of the V-chip requires parents to overcome several technological hurdles. In addition, the usefulness of the system is constrained by the limitations of the ratings themselves.

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