TV RATING SYSTEM WILL GIVE PARENTS INFORMATION

The new television rating system scheduled to go into effect next year has some drawbacks but does provide a valuable commodity for parents -- information.

"Anything that would give parents a little bit of information about what is on TV so they can make intelligent decisions for their children I think is a plus," Michael Maguire, chairman of the Cape Girardeau Cable Television Citizens Committee, said. "I don't think you will find something that will totally satisfy people because those people who are offended by a certain type of program will expect that those programs never are on."

Television networks soon will be labeling programs on a range of "TV-G" for material suitable for all ages to "TV-M" for mature audiences only. The symbol will appear in the upper left corner of the television screen for 15 seconds at the beginning of each show. It will reappear for each show and will be on program promotions lasting more than 30 seconds.

Maguire said the idea of rating TV shows might be more of a response to the viewing public's heightened concerns about the impact of TV sex and violence on TV than a reflection of the type of programing that has been on television lately.

"Any home with any of the premium channels like HBO or Cinemax, they're seeing that nudity anyway. So it's not like it's something terribly unique," he said.

"There's a lot of decrying of violence, for example, and we have now groups that are watchdogs for the amount of violent content that there is in programs. But if you go back to the '50s, lots and lots of violence occurred on those programs and somehow we seem to have survived that."

Howard Meagle, vice president and general manager of KFVS-12, said television stations have been screening shows for years.

"The rating system is just basically government intrusion into the free marketplace," he said. "But we have gotten together as an industry and said, If we're going to be compelled to do this we would rather it be done sensibly.

"This is particularly designed for the V-chip President Clinton mandated be done. So that people could have the opportunity to put a filter on their television sets for certain levels of programing."

The V-chip will be installed on all new television sets beginning in 1998. Using a remote control, viewers will be able to block individual shows or categories of shows based on their ratings.

Meagle said he sees many problems with this kind of technology because viewers will find themselves unable to use the V-chip properly and will get frustrated when a show they want to see is inadvertently screened out.

"Anytime you take free choice out of this and put a mechanical device in, people will end up frustrated," he said. "A viewer's greatest weapon on TV is to turn it off. If they've been offended by a program one time, then to me they ought to turn it off and just don't turn that show back on.

"At what point does the government stop making decisions for everybody about what they should have the freedom to do and what not?" he asked.

Even Meagle is not entirely opposed to the rating system.

"More information is always helpful," he said. "The system is just going into effect the first of the year. Our position is, let's try it out. Let's see how it works. Over a period of time if it needs improvement we'll have responsible input and we'll improve it."

May Greene Elementary School Principal Barbara Kohlfeld said parents can be surprised by unexpected scenes or jokes in television shows. The rating system could remove some of those negative surprises.

"I think it will definitely be a benefit to give parents an idea of the content of the TV viewing they're going to be watching," she said. "Having somebody preview that show for you and making a judgment call on that I think would be advantageous. I think sometimes these sit-coms have sexual overtones that are thrown in for laughs that wouldn't be appropriate, maybe wouldn't be understood, maybe would even be a little confusing for a younger child."

Maguire thinks it all comes back to basic family values.

"I think it's more a function of, if you have functional families this will be of some value to them," he said. "If you don't have a functional family it doesn't matter if you have a rating system or not."