More than half of U.S. parents who own a TV equipped with a V-Chip don't even know it's on board.

Remember the V-Chip--that ingenious little piece of technology designed to give parents absentee control over the level of sex, violence, and bad language their children are exposed to on television?

As of January 2000, all TVs with a screen 13 inches or larger that are sold in the U.S. include a V-Chip. The chip allows parents to program their TVs to automatically block programs with an undesirable content rating. According to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 40% of American families now own a TV with a V-Chip. However, the survey also found that 53% of parents who own a TV with a V-Chip aren't even aware the device is installed, and of those who do know, just 36% are using it to shield their kids from programs with sexual or violent content.

Does this mean Americans really aren't concerned about the effect of television on their children? Hardly. The Kaiser survey found that 82% of parents think their kids are exposed to too much TV violence (59%, a "great deal concerned"; 23%, "somewhat concerned"), and 79% think such exposure contributes to violent behavior in children. Eighty-one percent worry their kids see too much sexual content (63%, a "great deal concerned"; 18%, "somewhat concerned"), and 80% believe such exposure contributes to children becoming involved in sexual situations.

Why then, with roughly 80% of all parents harboring concerns about their children's exposure to sex and violence on TV, are so few availing themselves of V-Chip technology? The reasons are varied. Of those parents who answered that they would not use a V-Chip to block shows, 51% said it was because an adult is usually nearby when children are watching TV; 25% said they trust their children to make their own decisions; 8% believed their kids would find a way to get around the chip; 4% objected to the chip as a form of censorship; 3% thought programming the chip would be too time-consuming; and 2% said it would block shows they want to watch.

So is the V-Chip a failure? Not by a long shot. We are, after all, only in the second year of the program. According to the Kaiser survey, about a third of parents who know their televisions are equipped with a V-Chip use it, and of those, 86% rate it "very" (63%) or "somewhat" (23%) useful in blocking unwanted programs. But with 53% of owners unaware they have a TV with a V-Chip, it's pretty clear more must be done to increase awareness. The survey also found that many parents don't completely understand the ratings systems upon which the V-Chip is based, which presents a different educational challenge.

It's doubtful any thinking proponent of this new technology ever believed the V-Chip would, in and of itself, solve the problem of children's exposure to sexual and violent content on television. By most accounts, the V-Chip is an effective tool, and for many parents, a welcome adjunct to adult supervision, values education, and media literacy, but such "regulatory" solutions are not to everyone's satisfaction. Indeed, when asked if they favor government regulations to limit sex and violence on TV in the early evening hours, respondents in the recent Kaiser survey were split right down the middle, with 48% favoring new regulations and 47% opposed.

Putting all of these results into focus, Kaiser spokeswoman Victoria Rideout, vice president and director of the Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health, notes: "American parents are clearly worried about what their children are watching and how it affects them. But when it comes to how to limit sex and violence on TV, parents are far from unanimous."

Want to know more? Read the complete survey results at http://www.kff.org/content/2001/3158/ and check out A Parents Guide to the TV Ratings and V-Chip at www.vchipeducation.org; this site is cosponsored by the Center for Media Education (www.cme.org) and the Kaiser Family Foundation (www.kff.org). In addition to explaining the workings of the V-Chip, the Guide also includes many useful tips for parents and selected links to related online resources.