How V-chips Work

As of 1999, all TV sets sold in the Untied States are required to contain a viewer-control chip, also known as a v-chip. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about v-chips and television ratings

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com
where smart Happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question,
what does a V chip really do and how does
it work? As of all new television sets sold in
the United States have to contain a V chip. The
V stands for viewer control and the goal of the

(00:23):
chip is to allow parents to choose the level of
TV programming that will be allowed into the home. The
idea behind a V chip is simple. TV shows have
a signal embedded into them that gives the show a rating,
and the chip can detect these ratings. The ratings that
the FCC has settled on look like this. T V

(00:43):
Y is for all children. All children can watch because
it has zero violence and zero sexual content. TV Y
seven for all children seven and over. T V G
is for general audiences. There's no sex, violence, or inappropriate language.
TV PG is parental guidance suggested. TV fourteen is suitable

(01:05):
only for people over fourteen. There's some sex and violence.
And then t V M A is suitable only for
mature audiences and it can contain just about anything. A
parent can program the TV with a rating and the
TV will block all shows above that rating. So if
apparent programs in the TV Y seven rating, the TV

(01:26):
will allow only shows rated at TV Y or t
V y seven, but it will block all other shows.
How does your TV see the rating of a show?
The ratings are encoded in what's called the line twenty
one data area. All sorts of things go inside this
data area, such as closed captioning information and the time

(01:48):
of day, as well as the ratings information. It's basically
hidden in a part of the TV signal that doesn't
show up on the screen. The V chips simply decodes
the line twenty one data uh, compares it with the
parents allowed rating that they've programmed into the chip, and
then either blocks the signal or lets it through. Do

(02:08):
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