Thoughts on ProtecTV
Jan. 11th, 2002 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterI was reading Wired News today and happened onto an article about a device called "ProtecTV"--a sort of box that sits on top of the TV set and bleeps out "bad words," using the closed caption track to tell it when they happen. On the face of it, it may seem like a neat little gadget, and a clever use of the technology, but it seems to me that it might also be yet another tool for allowing parents to shirk their judgmental responsibility and allow their kids to vedge out in front of the one-eyed babysitter all the more.
I wrote a letter to the editor expressing these views; I doubt it'll get into print, given that I had one published there just a couple of months ago, and they probably got a wide variety of letters expressing views similar to mine. So, that the fruits of my creative labor not be entirely wasted, here's the content of the letter I sent:
I've heard about this ProtecTV idea several times in the past. I suppose it's interesting enough for people who would like to use such a thing.
But lest we forget, figuring out words from context is one of the techniques that is taught even in elementary schools. Unless one can manage to raise one's kids in a completely sterile environment (including no playground time with other kids who're likely to know and teach them), I think those kids are going to learn those words pretty quickly anyway, and then have a pretty good idea what's behind most of those "XXXXs". No wonder the developers' kids don't mind the device being in place--they're not really losing anything, because they can guess what's really being said! (I could imagine that it might even become sort of a game for them--guess the bleeped-out word or phrase.)
If parents worry that hearing these words will teach the kids that it's okay to use them, what, then, will watching shows with those words bleeped yet readily guessable teach the kids? Perhaps that it's okay to use the words as long as their parents can't hear them.
I wrote a letter to the editor expressing these views; I doubt it'll get into print, given that I had one published there just a couple of months ago, and they probably got a wide variety of letters expressing views similar to mine. So, that the fruits of my creative labor not be entirely wasted, here's the content of the letter I sent:
I've heard about this ProtecTV idea several times in the past. I suppose it's interesting enough for people who would like to use such a thing.
But lest we forget, figuring out words from context is one of the techniques that is taught even in elementary schools. Unless one can manage to raise one's kids in a completely sterile environment (including no playground time with other kids who're likely to know and teach them), I think those kids are going to learn those words pretty quickly anyway, and then have a pretty good idea what's behind most of those "XXXXs". No wonder the developers' kids don't mind the device being in place--they're not really losing anything, because they can guess what's really being said! (I could imagine that it might even become sort of a game for them--guess the bleeped-out word or phrase.)
If parents worry that hearing these words will teach the kids that it's okay to use them, what, then, will watching shows with those words bleeped yet readily guessable teach the kids? Perhaps that it's okay to use the words as long as their parents can't hear them.