Programs to Be Rated for Sex, Violence - February 1996

Pres. Bill Clinton, February 8, asked television network and cable executives to come to the White House to work out a means of rating television programs that had a violent or sexual content. At the meeting with the president, February 29, the heads of 4 major networks and the leading cable companies agreed to take steps to implement use of the so-called v-chip (for "violence") that parents could install in their sets. The chip, which was mandated in the telecommunications law just passed by Congress, would "read" a program's rating, and television owners would have the option of blocking out programs with certain ratings.