Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Play Nicely, Little DVD

Recent endorsement has come out for the new ClearPlay product which axes out excessive violence, nudity and language from currently 1000 popular DVD titles. Essentially, you will put a code on your new DVD player that will allow controlling of content.

I personally see this product in two ways. Sure, it's great if Billy is at home unattended and going through the family movie collection. You care about what images your children see when you aren't there. But, society has leaned on televisions too much as a babysitter and what the hell is Billy doing at home without supervision? Let's blame it on the content out there! Let's make 9 1/2 Weeks 8 1/2 minutes long! Sadly, we can't. New movies come out each Tuesday that might not be added to the ClearPlay software. What about obscure discs that aren't in print anymore? How many porn films are in that 1000 titles? Any chance Billy will find those? DVD burning software is out there. If you copied that movie (yes, it's not exactly legal unless you own the original) that you rented, would that be caught by the product? Burning software out there can even compress things differently to fit on consumer discs so it wouldn't be an exact replica. How far are we willing to go to try to control our children from a distance? Anyone buy those fancy new TVs just for a V-chip? It seems to me that this is just a manufactured crutch for woefully inadequate parental standards.

6 comments:

FantasticAlice said...

Little Billy will always find a way to watch what he shouldn't.

I agree with everything vavoom, jenn, and yourself say.

Especially about the supervision comment!!!!

Isn't it amazing how we can so easily blame everything/everyone else for the problems of a person being a bad parent.

Kudos for the post!

Martin said...

(Scribbling down reminder to pick up "The Girl Next Door" at Best Buy.) Taken to the next level, I entirely agree with the music comment. I'm not big on gangsta rap but I do think that if I found N.W.A. in "Billy's" room, I'd listen to it with him in the living room and talk about what he gets out of it. Blaming one person's creative expression for another's lapse of judgement is outright idiotic. Kinda like when the Roadrunner paints a tunnel on the side of a mountain and Wile E. Coyote tries to go through. Blame the bird all you want but you were the j/o that thought it was real.

Lily said...

This seems like a fine stand alone product for those who wish to buy & use it. I would not be one of those people. I would have an issue if it was something that came standard with DVD players.

As for the parental standards...I am going to leave that untouched and save that rant for another day.

Teri said...

As you said the TV is the babysitter/mom/dad/teacher/friend/ conscience of our society these days. We ourselves as a society have completely relied on it to raise and educate our children. Why should I read to my child if Mr. Rogers will do it for me?

LoraLoo said...

Being a mother to an 11-month-old, I often think about how much TV in one day is good enough, and TV time is very limited in our home. However, I don't think it's a good idea to completely sensor what she watches, either. If I need a contraption to remove potentially harmful things from a television program, perhaps she shouldn't be watching it at all. There is a huge gap between fiction and reality; if you teach your children right from wrong they will understand that. I listened to Judas Priest in high school; I grew up on horror movies and programs like M*A*S*H - I haven't attempted to take anyone's life, including my own! It is beyond my comprehension the most basic of life skills - right from wrong - is not focused on as much as something like potty training, or getting dressed every morning!!

Martin said...

Damn, she's almost a year, huh? Actually, I also think that if you have an item that censors movies... what about the kids that don't that fill in the gaps for their friends at school. "You don't remember when he rips her top off an throws her on the ground?" Yes, the only way to really keep things you find objectionable away from your kids is talking to them, spending time with them and not purchasing questionable items.