Another day, another survey… 463 Communications’ study claims more than half of Americans want its government to regulate online video in some way.
Around a quarter of respondents believe a system similar to movie ratings should be introduced. Perhaps the U.S. government could pick up a few tips from the BBC in the U.K., which has pioneered just such a scheme, with buy-in from other U.K. broadcasters too.
The BBC’s G for Guidance content labelling scheme acknowledges two important areas: 1. that only showing challenging content after 9pm ‘watershed’ on linear TV services is irrelevant in the on-demand world, and; 2. that it’s an opportunity to create an additional level of granularity, not offered by movie classifications.
For all of the exciting progress made with online video stateside, it’s surprising to note that the industry still hasn’t reached concensus on how to protect vulnerable audiences, particularly children, from content which may harm or offend.
Let’s hope the industry gets its act together before government chooses to legislate its way through the problem — after all, this was the country which brought us the dreaded V-Chip for TV sets, an abdication of the fundemantal point here: parental responsibility.
On a lighter note, the 463 study also found that 1 in 4 Americans would rather have the internet than a partner!