Parents had that ability before. Cable boxes have a "perental control key" on the side that enables them to lock out "offensive" channels. It works quite well and is fairly hard for the kidlets to defeat. (I used it to lockout the religious stations and home shopping channels.)
When I was a kid some friends down the street knew how to unlock the Channel 100 XXX movies with a paper clip. A V-chip would hopefully be more sophisticated, but then again, so are today's kids...
The "V-Chip" debate is a mirror of the one that occured when the cable channels were starting to become popular. There was a big hue and cry about kids getting to the "naughty" channels without parent concent. Seems most people do not even learn how the lockouts work. (And are too lazy to learn.)
You should check out your nearest H/P BBS or ftp-site...
You have to remember that most of the people arguing for TV filters are looking for a way to make the "offensive" stuff go away for good. (Either [..]
A very good point. One that makes me wary of V-Chips... --- "Mutant" Rob <wlkngowl@unix.asb.com> Send a blank message with the subject "send pgp-key" (not in quotes) for a copy of my PGP key.