[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 134 (Thursday, August 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12208-S12209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         THE MYSTERIOUS V-CHIP

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, there's been a lot of hype recently about 
the so-called V-chip.
  President Clinton has endorsed the chip, touting it as an antidote to 
the gratuitous violence and sexual innuendo that now permeate prime-
time television. A majority of the Senate has voted to require that 
every new television set contain the V-chip. And the House of 
Representatives has joined the V-chip bandwagon, by including a V-chip 
mandate in the recently passed telecommunications bill.

[[Page S 12209]]

  With all this support, one would think that the V-chip has been 
tested and tested in laboratories throughout the country. But guess 
what? The V-chip doesn't even exist--and it may never exist. It is 
purely a drawing-board scheme that may make sense in theory--but it's 
anybody's guess whether it will ever work in practice. We've never seen 
one.
  According to an article appearing in USA Today, ``There Is No Such 
Thing as a V-chip. And There Probably Never Will Be.'' The San 
Francisco Chronicle reports that--

       No company makes--the V-chip, nor has any company expressed 
     an interest in doing so. In fact, the chip isn't a chip at 
     all. It's really an idea for special circuitry for 
     television, but ``V-circuitry'' doesn't sound quite as 
     omnipotent as V-chip.

  Is development of V-chip technology just around the hi-tech corner? 
Well, perhaps not. According to experts cited in the USA Today article, 
it--

       Could take 10 years before a V-chip TV is designed, built, 
     marketed, and sold into enough homes to make a difference.

  And, in fact, it's likely that the so-called V-chip technology will 
be overtaken by existing software systems--developed as a direct result 
of consumer demand--that will give parents more control over what their 
children watch on television.
  So, Mr. President, seeing is believing--and perhaps, just perhaps, 
the White House may want to reconsider its threat to veto any 
telecommunications bill that fails to include a V-chip mandate. After 
all, this bill is the key to our Nation's future economic success.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the USA Today and San 
Francisco Chronicle articles be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             One Teensy Little Problem With This New V-Chip

                            (By Kevin Maney)

       There is no such thing as a v-chip. And there probably 
     never will be.
       ``I don't think Intel's doing it,'' says Howard High at 
     computer chipmaker Intel. ``Our plate's full.''
       ``Not at TI,'' says Neil McGlone at Texas Instruments. ``If 
     our customers tell us it's important, we'll take a look at 
     it.''
       Congress is demanding that every new TV set contain a v-
     chip. The provision is in a telecommunications bill passed 
     Friday by the House and in June by the Senate. Computerized 
     chips installed in TVs would have to be able to detect shows 
     that are violent by reading a signal carried along with each 
     show. The signal would tell the chip the rating of the show--
     similar to movie ratings. Parents could program the chip to 
     block out shows with certain ratings, keeping those shows 
     from their children's eyes.
       Great, except nobody's ever made a v-chip. It's like 
     passing a law requiring cars to have air bags before air bags 
     were even invented.
       ``The v-chip is a theory and a warning flag'' to makers of 
     violent TV programs, says Rob Agee, editor of Interactive 
     Television Report. ``But it doesn't exist.''
       In fact, Agee and others say a v-chip for TVs will be 
     overtaken by parental control software built into cable 
     systems or interactive TV networks. It could take 10 years 
     before a v-chip TV is designed, built, marketed and sold into 
     enough homes to make a difference. Some of the software 
     controls already are on the market or being tested. Among 
     them:
       TV Guide On Screen, an interactive on-screen version of the 
     magazine, lets parents lock out channels or individual shows. 
     It also could lock out programs by time--say, no TV until 
     after homework is done. The software will be loaded into 
     upgraded 500-channel cable TV systems starting this fall. 
     ``It's parental control as opposed to governmental control,'' 
     says Larry Miller, vice president of marketing.
       The Sega Channel, which lets users play Sega games over 
     cable TV lines, gives parents the option of blocking out 
     games that carry certain ratings. The channel is available on 
     some cable systems.
       In Bell Atlantic's tests of TV over phone lines, the viewer 
     has to enter a personal identification number to order 
     movies, games or items from home-shopping channels. The 
     programming can be blocked by rating.
       Those companies and others are pushing parental control 
     into their systems because consumers are demanding it, Agee 
     says. ``The v-chip is a moot point.''
                                                                    ____

           [From the San Francisco Chronicle, July 28, 1995]

   V-Chip Still Only a Vision--Despite All the Talk, It Doesn't Exist

                          (By Michelle Quinn)

       The V-chip seems like the perfect use of one technology to 
     solve a problem caused by another--children watching 
     television shows that serve up violence and sex.
       In coming weeks, the House of Representatives will consider 
     making the V-chip mandatory in all television sets over 13 
     inches. Last month, the Senate voted to do so in an amendment 
     to the Telecommunications Act.
       But those with a tool belt eager to install the chip into a 
     television set will be disappointed. The chip doesn't exist. 
     No company makes it, nor has any company expressed an 
     interest in doing so. In fact, the chip isn't a chip at all. 
     It's really an idea for special circuitry for television, but 
     ``V-Circuitry'' doesn't sound quite as omnipotent as V-chip.
       All technology starts with ideas. But unlike the creation 
     of the food processor, the electric shaver or the Macintosh 
     computer, the V-chip has sprung mostly from the brow of 
     political imagination and is gaining momentum in an election 
     year.
       It started when Representative Edward Markey, D-Mass., 
     asked the Electronic Industries Association, a trade 
     association based in Arlington, Va., that represents 
     electronics equipment manufacturers, to come up with ideas 
     for putting captioning on television sets for people who are 
     deaf or hard of hearing. In 1990, Markey's legislation 
     passed, making it mandatory for television sets to have 
     captioning.
       Two years later, Markey asked the trade association to come 
     up with another technology idea, this time for screening out 
     television violence, said Gary Shapiro, group vice president 
     with the association.
       Again, the trade association obliged, coming up with a 
     laundry list of how a violence screener might work. Markey 
     dubbed the idea ``V-chip'' and a political football was born.
       The rough plans were that parents should consult a ratings 
     guidebook, and with a remote control, block certain shows. 
     The television industry would come up with the ratings.
       The electronics trade association began to work on how the 
     technology might work--and began to take heat from its 
     members, such as television set
      manufacturers, who said it would be too expensive to 
     rejigger televisions.
       Markey attempted to introduce a bill about the V-chip last 
     year but the electronics trade association said the idea 
     wasn't ready. The association occasionally seems ready to 
     drop the V-chip idea, said David Moulton, Markey's chief of 
     staff, perhaps buckling under pressure from members who say 
     it would be too expensive.
       ``Even now, I can no longer get a firm grasp on when the 
     standards will be done,'' Moulton said.
       So while the V-chip languished on the drawing board, 
     politics took over.
       Last month, Senate majority leader Bob Dole took on 
     Hollywood as part of his presidential campaign and denounced 
     movies and television shows with ``mindless violence and 
     loveless sex.''
       Soon after, Senator Kent Conrad, D-N.D., introduced the V-
     chip as an amendment to the Telecommunications Act. A 
     political stampede took place, with the majority of the 
     Senate shifting its vote at the last minute to pass the 
     amendment 73 to 26.
       Even President Clinton got in on the V-chip, telling a 
     Nashville conference on families and the media this month 
     that he supported the new technology.
       Broadcasters and cable operators began denouncing the V-
     chip, saying it would be impossible to agree on a rating 
     system that the chips could read.
       Capital Cities/ABC Inc. said it was censorship. ``A chip 
     takes choice out of parents' hands and puts it in the hands 
     of government,'' said a company press release.
       Next week, Markey intends to introduce an amendment to the 
     Telecommunications Act in the House making it mandatory for 
     televisions over 13 inches. The industry association contends 
     Markey is breaking a promise by making the V-chip 
     mandatory.'' There were no promises, no letters,'' Moulton 
     said.
       Once TV set manufacturers have to include the V-chip, they 
     will be glad for it, Moulton said. They'll ``advertise new 
     parent-friendly blocking technology,'' said Markey's 
     spokesman. ``This will be a new reason to buy TV sets.''
       For Shapiro of the trade association, the V-chip is no 
     longer in his control. Politicians, he said, ``see political 
     advantage in it. The V-chip makes a good sound bite.''
       The V-chip standards could have been ready by early 1996. 
     But with TV set manufacturers and broadcasters fighting it, 
     the V-chip is years off.
       And even then, the V-chip won't be foolproof, Shapiro 
     added.
       ``A smart kid will unplug the television set,'' he said, 
     ``and reset all the ratings.''
     

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