The New V-Chip Bill Has Web In Its Crosshairs

Are you familiar with the V-Chip? It’s a piece of technology embedded into television sets sold in the US for a number of years that allows authoritative wacks parents, guardians, or elders the luxury of controlling what the “underage” can view without said parents, guardians, or elders having to actually supervise said “underage”. Snazzy, eh?

Well, the proponents of this asinine invention (I’m all for proper programming, but as the American television rating system is no doubt ridiculous, I am thus led to consider the V-Chip ridiculous) have decided to take things to the next level. They’ve lobbied the Senate Commerce Committee enough to see that a bill called the Child Safe Viewing Act was passed. (It was championed by Mark Pryor, Democratic Senator of Arizona.) The bill, it should be known, was vague enough in its terminology that it may now encompass things to do with the Web as well as things in the realm of television.

So, you know how the Web has tons of open doors and free admission (in terms of access in the US in this case) and all that good stuff? Well, some might soon have trouble passing through those some doors. And the body that would decide who gets tagged and who doesn’t? The FCC.

Keep in mind just how many unique websites there are today up on the Internet. Yeah, this expansion experiment is bound to go very wrong.

That is, if this bill’s backers even get to do what they really want to do. Simply put, they wish to make every Web establishment, old or new, adhere to their line of thought – or at least to their rules and regulations. I’m under the sneaking suspicion that this won’t go down too well with a whole lot of people once everyone begins to understand the stipulations to “V-Chip 2.0” in plain language.

Keep in mind, I’m all for keeping kids away from the “bad stuff” on the Net. I’m even for keeping a good number of adults from traveling Route Risqué. But never has the US government been a group to practice logic consistently where civil regulations are concerned. The intentions behind such laws might be good, but a whole lot of bystanders are guaranteed to be swept up (negatively) in the mix. If V-Chip 2.0 were to be administered to the Web at large, well, you can imagine just how big a train wreck we’d have on our hands.

The way get the ideal effects of a V-Chip 2.0 initiative without getting any of the widespread discontent and furor that’s bound to crop up if the project goes forward unimpeded, is simple: get those responsible for the well-being of their youth throughout the US to actually take responsibility for their youth.

There’s absolutely nothing easier (save, obviously, for the need for adults to swallow the embarrassment and awkwardness of having to talk to children about things substantive and meaningful) than teaching kids about right and wrong - via a myriad of methods - whether it has to do with things they encounter in the physical world or the digital. And, as both arenas merge more closely together each and every passing year, it’s less a task than ever to kill two birds with one stone.

So, there you have it. If parents want to keep their kids “safe”, they can do so by being parents. The same goes for guardians and such, of course.

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