Posted by Alric Knebel on 04/27/07 22:31

Barbara Bailey wrote:

> On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 01:27:37 -0500, Alric Knebel
> <alric@[cableone.net]> wrote:
>
>
>>UncleDave wrote:
>>
>>
>>>"Barbara Bailey" <rabrabbjb@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>>news:9tp23352knish8665dfk90u1fd1vb8o81v@4ax.com...
>>>
>>>
>>>>On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:10:57 -0700, Don Del Grande
>>>><del_grande_news@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>SFTVratings wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>EvWill wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>The report -- commissioned by members of Congress in 2004 and based on
>>>>>>>hundreds of comments from parents, industry officials, academic
>>>>>>>experts and others -- concludes that Congress has the authority to
>>>>>>>regulate "excessive violence" and to extend its reach for the first
>>>>>>>time into basic-cable TV channels that consumers pay to receive.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Woah. Wait. Hold on.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>By WHAT authority does Congress regulate basic cable? That's NOT over-
>>>>>>the-air. It's NOT something you can see by accidentally turning on
>>>>>>your television (like over-the-air broadcast). Basic cable only
>>>>>>enters the home BY CONSENT of the home-owners. If they don't like
>>>>>>what they see, all they need to do is unplug the cable & it's gone.
>>>>>
>>>>>That's kind of like saying "if they don't like what they see on
>>>>>over-the-air, they can unplug the TV." I heard one woman say
>>>>>something along the lines of, "I shouldn't have to risk stumbling onto
>>>>>a sexual assault on fX just so my child can watch the Disney Channel."
>>>>>
>>>>>(Translation: force a la carte channel selection.
>>>>>
>>>>>Solution: require the ability to be put into TVs and cable boxes - you
>>>>>pay for all of the channels in a package, and disable the ones you
>>>>>don't want.)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Funny. That's exactly how my satellite provider works now. I can
>>>>lock-out any channel I want. Access is password-protected, so that I
>>>>can watch (for example) Spike if I want to, but my hypothetical kids
>>>>couldn't (unless they figured out the password, in which case, I can
>>>>change it to something else.)
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>You can keep out hypothetical kids easily enough, but real ones will get
>>>around it in no time.
>>
>>There's no way they could figure out a password.
>
>
> Whether the kids can get through it depends largely on how I construct
> it and how I maintain it. In other words, I have to expend some effort
> to make it work. This is clearly more than that woman feels is
> justified; she wants someone else to parent her kids for her.

Well, she's going to have to take responsibility for her kids, and don't
impose the babysitting on the rest of it. Those controls are simple as
hell to operate. If she can't figure it out, then perhaps her kids
aren't genetically bright enough to comprehend what they're looking at,
and there's no harm in any case.


--

______________________________________________
Alric Knebel
http://www.ironeyefortress.com/C-SPAN_loon.html
http://www.ironeyefortress.com

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