monitoring for parents The TV ratings system is designed to aid parents in deciding what programming they deem appropriate for their children to watch. One such site that explains the ratings system is TheTVBoss.org, which was created by the United States Ad Council. The website explains the various options for controlling children's viewing patterns. It also contains instructions for activating the chip. Support from PTA groups Many parents' groups are in favor of monitoring children's viewing habits, mostly for the purpose of building family values. "America's families will be now the ultimate judges of [the new ratings system's] effectiveness," said Lois Joan White, Parent-Teacher Association president, in 1997 in support of V-chip technology. The V-chip is also supported by other websites like FamilySafeMedia.com, which presents technologies like the Weemote and TVGuardian as alternatives to the V-chip. The V-chip and commercials The V-chip has provided parents and guardians the ability to monitor and block television shows that are unfavorable for children to watch in specific households by reading the information that is encoded in the rated program and blocking it based upon that rating it has been given. However, due to the increasing variety of technology that is being developed and used in the household, parents are concerned that their children will be exposed to the same content they are trying to block through unrated commercials. Because commercials are not rated, the V-chip does not have the ability to censor lewd or inappropriate commercials. This raises issues because children can see the same content that they are blocked on regular shows while watching commercials. This causes the V-Chip to be ineffective unless it applies to both television programs as well as commercials. Because rating commercials globally would be a difficult task, a possible suggestion would be to limit inappropriate commercials and promotions shown at certain times that children watch television. In order to give children some protection from seeing inappropriate commercials, certain improvements to the V-Chip should be made that can follow the same standard across all areas of media that include "broadcast, cable, satellite, DVRs and, to the extent possible, the Internet." See also Analog television Analog transmission Censorship Motion picture rating system Parental controls Production Code Re-edited film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut Television content rating systems Dr. Joseph N. Jackson References External links Interview with Tim Collings v-chip.org (Ad Council) FCC V-Chip information V-Chip Canada TV Parental