V Chip

Not to be outdone by efforts in the Senate and White House to politely pressure television makers to install a chip in all new sets to screen out violent shows -- the so-called "V-chip" -- the House before its recess voted to make such circuitry mandatory. It is a glib, bureaucratic response that probably won't work. The problem it attempts to solve owes as much to changing family patterns and parenting styles as to what's on the tube.The V-chip is an idea that resonates strongly with those who believe TV violence desensitizes children to the real thing.

WHEN I FIRST heard about the V-chip, I felt like shouting "Hallelujah!" It seemed like the answer to every parent's prayers.The V-chip, or choice chip as it is sometimes called, requires broadcasters to set up ratings for television shows (much like movies), and allows families to block programming they don't want in their homes.At last! An end to all those repetitive arguments that preteens have so much more energy for than parents ("No, you may not watch 'Melrose Place' tonight, either")

Here's what I don't think:I don't think violence on TV causes violence in the streets any more than I think laugh tracks cause humor to break out in the streets.But I do believe that parents should monitor what their children do with their time. And what many children do with their time is watch TV.Which is to say bad TV.I've been reading a lot recently about how we're enjoying a golden age of television. This premise apparently is based on the fact that, on any given night, you can watch prime-time drama based in hospitals or in police stations.

Los Angeles -- When Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole lashed out at the entertainment industry May 31 for producing films, songs and television shows that promote violence, many in Hollywood dismissed it as the political rabble- rousing of a presidential wannabe.But, today, as the Senate Commerce Committee begins hearings on television programming, it's clear cable and network executives are taking the growing national debate on media messages more seriously. Hollywood is listening to Washington, with some top executives even acknowledging the possibility of genuine reform in the shape of channel-blocking technology known as the V-chip.

While President Clinton has his own ideas about crime in America, Congress has already solved the problem:Television, it believes, is the reason we have violence in America.And this is why there are no fewer than 10 bills now pending in Congress to reduce or eliminate violence in broadcasting.One bill would require all TV manufacturers to include an electronic chip -- a so-called v-chip -- that could block out violent shows.Another bill would forbid violent shows during certain hours. (What's a violent show?

Ruth Taggart worried that her children, Christian, 12, and Justina, 16, watched too much television.So last spring the Torrance, Calif., single parent bought TV Allowance, a device resembling a desktop calculator and costing about $100, that limits TV time to nine hours a week for each child.Parents preset the machine, giving each child an access number and entering the number of hours of TV watching allowed. When time's up, the child's number won't turn on the set. The parent has an override code number.

Brandon Tartikoff, former network TV programmer and movie mogul, is greatly disturbed by what he perceives to be a burgeoning new era of censorship on America's television airwaves.Between all of the new projects stemming from his current incarnation as a TV megaproducer, Mr. Tartikoff -- the former president of NBC Entertainment and head of Paramount Pictures -- has been railing against the government's sudden preoccupation with TV violence.It smacks of self-serving hypocrisy to Mr. Tartikoff.