Craig McTaggart is a member of the KNOWlaw Group of the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch.

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The American television industry has recently fulfilled its ‘voluntary’ pledge to address concerns about the effects of tv violence on children. This action will directly impact Canadian producers selling to u.s. broadcasters and indirectly affect Canadian broadcasters when the Canadian solution is unveiled later this spring. This is the first of a series of Binchmarks articles on tv parental guidelines in the u.s. and Canada.

The u.s. solution, the ‘TV Parental Guidelines,’ was announced by an industry group headed by Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, on Dec. 19, 1996. Icons indicating ratings such as ‘tv-y’ and ‘tv-pg’ began to appear on American television broadcasts on Jan. 1, 1997.

The guidelines mandate the classification of programs based on their suitability for viewing by different age groups, in much the same manner as the mpaa Motion Picture Ratings System employed in the u.s.

The system places the responsibility for children’s television viewing in the hands of parents, instead of placing limits on what broadcasters and cable companies can show them. The guidelines are the result of several years of discussion and compromise by the industry, the fcc, advocacy groups and the White House. The route which was eventually decided upon was one of industry self-regulation, as opposed to legislation by Congress or regulation by the fcc.

Six categories

The TV Parental Guidelines mandate two classifications for programs designed for children and four categories for programs designed for the entire tv audience. The criteria for applying the categories are brief, and indeed this was one of the goals of their authors. The two categories which apply solely to children’s programs are:

TV-Y: All Children. This program is designed to be appropriate for all children. Whether animated or live action, the themes and elements in this program are specifically designed for a very young audience, including children from ages two to six. This program is not expected to frighten younger children.

TV-7: Directed to Older Children. This program is designed for children age seven and above. It may be more appropriate for children who have acquired the development skills needed to distinguish between make-believe and reality. Themes and elements in this program may include mild physical comedic violence, or may frighten children under the age of seven. Therefore, parents may wish to consider the suitability of this program for their very young children.

There are four further categories, which apply to programs designed for the entire audience:

TV-G: General Audience. Most parents would find this program suitable for all ages. Although this rating does not signify a program designed specifically for children, most parents may let younger children watch this program unattended. It contains little violence, no strong language and little or no sexual dialogue or situations.

TV-PG: Parental Guidance Suggested. This program may contain some material that some parents would find unsuitable for younger children. Many parents may want to watch it with their younger children. The theme itself may call for parental guidance. The program may contain infrequent coarse language, limited violence, some suggestive dialogue and situations.

TV-14: Parents Strongly Cautioned. This program may contain some material that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age. Parents are strongly urged to exercise greater care in monitoring this program and are cautioned against letting children under the age of 14 watch unattended. This program may contain sophisticated themes, sexual content, strong language and more intense violence.

TV-M: Mature Audience Only. This program is specifically designed to be viewed by adults and therefore may be unsuitable for children under 17. This program may contain mature themes, profane language, graphic violence, and explicit sexual content.

Who determines the ratings

The task of applying the classifications to programs is shared by the networks, producers and distributors of American tv programming. The Implementation Group cited the 2,000-plus hours of programming to be reviewed each day as necessitating such an approach.

Although it is to be expected that producers would be primarily responsible for applying the ratings, the final say rests with local distributors. This would appear to allow inconsistent classifications among the three groups charged with determining what ‘most parents would find suitable’ for what age group.

It also means that Canadian producers will have to be familiar with and participate in the system if they wish to sell their programs to u.s. broadcasters.

All television shows, including miniseries, movies and other formats must carry the appropriate ratings. Each individual episode of a series must be rated separately. Sports and news shows, however, will not be rated.

The decision of how much reality children should be exposed to on tv would appear to be left solely to parents.

A gray area will undoubtedly arise with respect to ‘tabloid’ news shows whose content often stretches the definition of ‘news.’

The guidelines do not contain any new rules regarding time of day for airing shows carrying certain classifications nor any limit on the number of programs of each classification which may be aired in any given time period.

Some broadcast and cable networks are to be allowed to supplement the standard rating system with additional information.

Icons and V-chips

Distinctive icons have been designed for use with the rating system. The icons are simple black-and-white characters and are to be 40 scan lines high and of 70% density, making them transparent yet visible against any background. The appropriate symbol must be displayed for the first 15 seconds of a program (presumably during the opening sequence) in the upper left-hand corner of the screen and, if a program extends beyond one hour, must appear in the same fashion at the beginning of subsequent hours.

In addition to the display of icons, distributors are required to encode signals for compatibility with the v-chip, allowing parents to completely block out programs encoded with certain ratings. v-chip technology, developed by Professor Tim Collings at Simon Fraser University, is expected to become standard in new televisions and set-top boxes available from cable companies in 1997.

In order for parents to make full use of the rating system, they must know what the ratings mean. The National Association of Broadcasters will encourage its members to promote the rating system and to make the full text of the guidelines available to those making viewing decisions for younger viewers. Newspapers are to be asked to include the guidelines in their tv listings pages, as will TV Guide, onscreen cable listings and cable guides.

This blanket promotion may make it difficult for the Canadian system to take a different approach, but more about that in the next Binchmarks.

Oversight Monitoring Board

The guidelines will be continually reviewed by an Oversight Monitoring Board, chaired by Valenti and having 18 other members: six each from the broadcast, cable and creative communities.

The creators of the system hope that the board will be able to ensure the uniformity and consistency of the guidelines, through research on parental use of and attitudes toward the system. The public will be able to file questions and complaints about the ratings given to particular programs.

While some American tv signals distributed by Canadian distribution undertakings already carry the TV Parental Guidelines, Canada’s own rating system is not slated to come into full effect until the fall 1997 launch.

In the next installment of this column we will discuss the peculiarly Canadian issues surrounding the implementation of such a system here.

(This article contains general comments only. It is not intended to be exhaustive and should not be considered as advice on any particular situation.)