Digital TV parental lock to become mandatory - updated
- 24 February, 2010 16:58
- Comments 9
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is seeking feedback from the industry and public on a standard that will make parental locks a mandatory feature of digital TV receivers.
A parental lock lets parents and guardians control access to programs based on classifications such as G, PG, M or MA. Many set top boxes and digital receivers already include a lock as an option but the changes mean every receiver sold in Australia would have to include the function. The standard would come into play from April this year.
“Mandating the inclusion of parental lock in digital receivers will support parents and guardians in protecting their children from inappropriate or harmful content on television,” ACMA chairman, Chris Chapman, said in a statement.
“The ACMA’s primary aim is to ensure this standard meets consumer needs for an appropriate and effective protection mechanism for their children. This is best achieved through consultation to assist in the development of a standard that is clear, unambiguous and readily understood by industry,” Chapman said.
The standard would come under Part 9A of Broadcasting Services Act 1992. ACMA has developed a discussion paper and is seeking comment on:
- Whether there are any particular types of digital television receivers that should be exempt from meeting the requirements of the standard
- The need for labelling and record-keeping obligations as part of the compliance arrangements that accompany the standard
- The date by which equipment supplied to the market should comply with the standard.
The closing date for feedback is 2 April 2010.
The number of people converting to digital TV is growing steadily; the results from the Digital Tracker survey found 61 per cent of households had converted by the end of 2009. Mildura Sunraysia will be the first region in Australia to go digital-only on 30 June. By the end of last year, 79 per cent of households had already converted. Regional South Australia and Broken Hill will follow, switching to digital-only in the second half of 2010.
The Digital Tracker survey is conducted quarterly as part of the switchover to digital television across Australia by 2013.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email Computerworld
- Follow Computerworld on twitter
- Justifying Business Intelligence Applications
- Eliminating Tape
- Case Study: NZ Bus Develops Applications 60% Faster, Improves Database Performance by up to 35%
- A Technical Overview of the Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Exadata Storage Server
- Stella Travel Services embarks on a strategic refresh of print operations
-
CeBIT 2012: Will NBN speed up freight delivery times?
-
Coalition NBN better or worse?
-
Coalition NBN better or worse?
-
CeBIT 2012: Will NBN speed up freight delivery times?
-
NBN build gaining momentum daily: Quigley
-
Computers for Seniors for Dummies, 2nd Edition
-
Windows 7 for Seniors for Dummies®
-
Excel 2007 All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies
-
Office 2007 All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies
-
Microsoft Office
-
Windows 7 for Dummies® Dvd+book Bundle
-
MYOB Software for Dummies 6E Australian Edition
-
Teach Yourself Visually Windows 7
-
Windows 7 for Dummies®
Comments
Max Tivey
ACMA, stay the hell out of my lounge-room, and out of my life.
Bloody parasites, get a real job.
Enigmatic
Max, they are simply mandating a "feature", that doesn't mean you have to use it, only that receivers must support this feature or else they cannot be sold in Australia... sounds perfectly fair and doesn't affect you in any way.
I acutally think they should go one step further than this. I think that not noly should the parental locking feature be based on classification, but it should also allow you to choose the types of things you want locked out. You may decide that bad language and/or violence or nudity is acceptable, but horror is not. As it currently stands, you can only block based on the rating of the movie which doesn't take into account the actual content of the movie.
The bottom line is that censorship should be in the hands of the PARENTS, but to put it into their hands we need t provide them with tools that are sophisticated enough to allow them to adequately specify what can be seen. If we only provide them limited tools (like blocking PURELY on rating), then the entire concept of parental locking becomes unworkable because it either blocks too much or doesn't block enough.
gnome
We shouldn't blame ACMA for this. They are only doing what they have been directed to do by the government.
This proposal seems to be another part of the we're-saving-the-children hoopla from Kruddman and Conboy as justification for their imposition of secret government censorship via the foolish filter.
But as Enigmatic says, this may be the one useful idea that has come out of the whole debacle.
Old Bob
If you ever get a TV with this feature, which I consider to unnecessary, do apply a password immediately if you have teenagers else they could apply the password and lock you out. ROFLMAO
Cowcakes
Old Bob is right. In most cases it would be kids locking out the parents as many adults can't even set the time on a video recorder, let alone use something as complex as a password system. Add tio that is the fact that any parent who cares already monitors what the kids see.
Sam
I think a feature like this on all TV's would be helpful for parents. I have no problem with giving parents the option of censoring content for their children. What I do have a problem with is mandatory censorship. The government should never tell me what I can and cant see. Are you reading this conroy and atkinson?
Ha
Acma might as well censor the nightly news!
George
Again, if it is to protect the children, why make it mandatory? I don't have any children.
GB
I hope they've worked out how to make this work with digital tuner cards in PCs running under open source software. Going to be a lot of unhappy people if they try to lock us into using certain software and certain operating systems.
If they force people to use tuners with locks, they need to provide a way to remove the lock in the case of a lost password.
I'm all fro protecting kids from unhealthy content, but not at the expense of reducing everyone else's ability to watch what they want without interference and without requiring them to purchase or use some "approved" hardware or software. There are other, better ways.
Post new comment