Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com
Speaker 1: where smart Happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question,
Speaker 1: what does a V chip really do and how does
Speaker 1: it work? As of all new television sets sold in
Speaker 1: the United States have to contain a V chip. The
Speaker 1: V stands for viewer control and the goal of the
Speaker 1: chip is to allow parents to choose the level of
Speaker 1: TV programming that will be allowed into the home. The
Speaker 1: idea behind a V chip is simple. TV shows have
Speaker 1: a signal embedded into them that gives the show a rating,
Speaker 1: and the chip can detect these ratings. The ratings that
Speaker 1: the FCC has settled on look like this. T V
Speaker 1: Y is for all children. All children can watch because
Speaker 1: it has zero violence and zero sexual content. TV Y
Speaker 1: seven for all children seven and over. T V G
Speaker 1: is for general audiences. There's no sex, violence, or inappropriate language.
Speaker 1: TV PG is parental guidance suggested. TV fourteen is suitable
Speaker 1: only for people over fourteen. There's some sex and violence.
Speaker 1: And then t V M A is suitable only for
Speaker 1: mature audiences and it can contain just about anything. A
Speaker 1: parent can program the TV with a rating and the
Speaker 1: TV will block all shows above that rating. So if
Speaker 1: apparent programs in the TV Y seven rating, the TV
Speaker 1: will allow only shows rated at TV Y or t
Speaker 1: V y seven, but it will block all other shows.
Speaker 1: How does your TV see the rating of a show?
Speaker 1: The ratings are encoded in what's called the line twenty
Speaker 1: one data area. All sorts of things go inside this
Speaker 1: data area, such as closed captioning information and the time
Speaker 1: of day, as well as the ratings information. It's basically
Speaker 1: hidden in a part of the TV signal that doesn't
Speaker 1: show up on the screen. The V chips simply decodes
Speaker 1: the line twenty one data uh, compares it with the
Speaker 1: parents allowed rating that they've programmed into the chip, and
Speaker 1: then either blocks the signal or lets it through. Do
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Speaker 1: works dot com. For more on this and thousands of
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