As an adult without children, I often forget about the ratings system appearing before many television shows. Which is why a ratings system appearing before online content also had never really occurred to me. With tablet and smart phone users spending a good chunk of time streaming TV and videos on the respective devices, some “concerned” parents have requested online television get its own set of ratings, and now some of the major networks have come together to comply.
ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS have all signed a pact, along with Telemundo, Univision, and TeleFutura to create online tools to help parents to judge whether streamed TV content is appropriate for their children. The press release is pretty vague, discussing a sort of ratings system that will likely be similar to the TV-14 and other black-and-white boxes appearing on our TV screens at home. However, because the release also talks about other measures networks may take, Deadline is questioning whether the upcoming systems will also include some sort of blocking feature for parents who do not want their children streaming certain shows.
“Today the ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, TeleFutura, Telemundo and Univision broadcast networks announced a plan to provide additional ratings tools to give parents even greater decision-making power over their family’s media consumption.Parents will now be able use the TV ratings system when children access broadcast television programs on the Internet. The networks are making the ratings information available for all full-length entertainment programs that stream on the websites that they control.Each company will determine its own systems, and the networks have committed that the TV ratings will appear at the beginning of full-length video programs and also in the online programming descriptions. Network websites will also include or link to ratings system information. This commitment is effective for rated programming televised beginning December 1, 2012.”
Despite the focus on the major network content, the ratings system is still in the very early stages, as can be noted by a December release date, and it will likely take a while for anything like this to be used for streamed shows from cable television, much less for other streamed content, like web series, etc. Still, for protectionist parents, having a measure to help gauge what kids can see on the web, probably at least makes those parents feel a little more safe, even if a tiny black and white blurb does not officially do all that much.
