I assume that this chip works on some password scheme.. Here's a little excerpt from a letter sent by a Cybermind list member Robert A. Kezelis to Mr. President:

3) V-chip technology is cute, but ineffective. You realistically suggest (with a straight face, no less) that a parent who probably has trouble programing a VCR (which sits on the TV and suffers from a constant flashing 12:00am) can outfox and hide the proper command from a computer-literate, intuitive, aggresive and creative teen? Surely you jest. Ask your daughter and her schoolmates, not some older advisor whose experience with teen hackers is limited. The V-chip is like telling a child, you can go into the candy store, but don't open this jar when I walk to the other side of the store!

Some kids also have friends. Friends whose parent are more permissive then theirs, and friends who are smarter than their parents. Kids whose V-Chip has 1-1-1 rating allowing them to watch nothing but selected episodes of Barney demoing new versions of V-Chip, may be embarrassed to invite anybody over. Kids with 5-5-5 rating will be the New Cool Guys. Now if your child wants to go over to Billy's, you may want to call Billy's mom and ask her what her V-Chip settings are. Do not forget to ask her when was the last time she beat Billy at any computer game... One restriction that I could possibly consider for my child, would be a 'crap' factor. I think it's a much more serious danger to the young americans; IMO, watching baseball and psychic idiocy is much less natural and a lot more harmful to a young mind than seeing a picture of a breast. This factor is the reason why I restrict *myself* from watching most of TV programs. ----------------------------------------------------------- | Alexander Chislenko | sasha1@netcom.com | Cambridge, MA | | Home page: http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html | -----------------------------------------------------------