Will Technology Let Parents Regulate TV Watching?

Here’s a thought to keep your brain churning this weekend.

I received an interesting bit of writing last night from Adam Thierer, the senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation. His premise is that with video-on-demand (VOD) and recording technologies like personal video recorders (PVR) it's harder for parents to blame TV broadcasters for kids watching inappropriate programs. In a word, as we gain more control over what we watch, parents are going to have to start pointing the finger towards themselves.

Those of you who’ve been around as long as the TV probably remember sitting around the one-box-in-the-house with your parents getting increasingly agitated as Elvis gyrated below the waist. Ever since I can remember, parents have been setting rules about what should and shouldn’t be watched.

Case in point: We were allowed The Ed Sullivan Show and Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, with the occasional Bonanza. (Mom was freaked by my fantasy of marrying Little Joe.) Of course, somehow we kids managed to watch what we wanted despite parental restrictions. For me it was the Patty Duke Show and Leave It to Beaver, with The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents a bit tougher to wrangle a seat for because Mom knew we got nightmares.

Thierer makes a lot of points about the changing world. But there’s one constant. Moms and dads still freak out. But homes are changing: The majority of homes have multiple TVs and 86 percent of households subscribe to cable or satellite TV. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) estimates that 85 percent of U.S. households have at least one VCR and that 83 percent have at least one DVD player.

As for digital broadcasts, it's estimated that almost 22 percent of homes will have a digital video recorder (DVR) by the end of 2007. Video-on-demand (VOD) technology will grow from 21.4 percent in 2005 to 42 percent in 2010.

According to various industry reports, children’s programming makes up a big chunk of what’s available from these new delivery mediums. In the VOD world, kids' programming is one of the largest categories. Thierer notes that homes with cable/satellite receive an average of 102 kid-type channels from the more than 500 available: Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, Noggin, PBS Kids, and the Hallmark Channel to name a few.

So what does that mean? Well, Thierer conjectures that it may take some of the wind out of the politicians' sails as they look to regulate TV programming through legislation. Some legislators are calling for regulating cable as well as traditional broadcasting. Some are calling for cable companies to sell one-station options instead of bundles. Some want rules about violence and sex more strictly enforced. Thierer clearly wants parents to take personal control, leaving the regulators out of it.

Of course, there’s another side to the argument. Parents have technologies like the V-chip in their TVs to help filter content, but few have used them. (Maybe because it’s hidden in the bowels of the TV?) Another downside of abdicating to parents is that many kids will suffer for their parents' own negligence in monitoring TV usage. When they grow up exposed to inappropriate programming we may all suffer. Finally, many homes do not have the new technology or have the skills to record or play video-on-demand. Since 2010 and 2011 are the critical dates for “the tipping point” according to Thierer, we’ll probably lose an entire generation of kids before their parents even have access to on-demand and recording technology.

There you have it, the pros and cons for letting technology put the power of regulating what you watch into your own hands. Any takers? Or would you rather let Washington do it for you?