As the fall TV season opens this week with more adult language in prime-time than ever before, few parents are using the TV Parental Guidelines content ratings to help them choose appropriate family programming.

        “There is very little use of the ratings system,” says Donna Mitroff, president of Mediascope, a Los Angeles nonprofit organization that researches entertainment industry issues.

TV GUIDELINES

TV-Y: Appropriate for all children. Themes and elements are specifically designed for a very young audience, including children 2-6. It is not expected to frighten younger children.    TV-Y7: For children age 7 and up. Themes and elements may include mild fantasy or comedic violence, or may frighten children under 7. If the fantasy violence is more intense or more combative than other programs in this category, it will be designated TV-Y7-FV.    TV-G: For the general audience, appropriate for all ages. A show contains little or no violence, no strong language and little or no sexual dialogue or situations.    TV-PG: Parent guidance suggested; may be unsuitable for younger children. The theme itself may call for parental guidance, and many parents may want to watch with their younger children. The program may contain moderate violence (V), some sexual situations (S), infrequent coarse language (L) or some suggestive dialogue (D).    TV-14: Parents strongly cautioned; may be unsuitable for children under 14. Parents are strongly urged to exercise greater care in monitoring this program, and are cautioned against letting children under 14 watch unattended. The program may contain intense violence (V), intense sexual situations (S), strong coarse language (L) and intensely suggestive dialogue (D).    TV-MA: Mature audience only; may be unsuitable for children under 17. The program may contain graphic violence (V), crude, indecent language (L) and explicit sexual activity (S).    Source: Federal Communications Commission

        “People are unaware or uninformed about what they are, and what they mean,” says Ms. Mitroff, a former senior vice president for the Fox Family and ABC Family channels.

        Only 28 percent of all parents say they “often” use the age-based program content ratings adopted voluntarily five years ago by the TV industry, according to a 2001 Kaiser Family Foundation national survey.

        That figure doesn't surprise Paul Bergman, who runs a media awareness program for St. Mary's School students in Hyde Park.

        “I get the impression that few people use them. They find them confusing, and they don't know what they mean,” he says.

        Says Gail Berman, Fox Entertainment president: “We get e-mails and calls about just about everything. But in the two years I've been here (at Fox), I don't believe that we've gotten one single call about them.”

        Since 1997, TV Parental Guidelines have been displayed on the upper right corner of the TV screen for 15 seconds at the start of each program. The ratings — listed in The Enquirer TV grids, TV Guide, USA Today other newspapers — also allow parents to block programming by using the V-chip, computer technology in all TV sets made since Jan. 1, 2000.

        Often the age-based ratings (TV-Y, TV-PG, TV-14, etc.) are accompanied by letter advisories about the degree of violence (V), sexual situations (S), coarse language (L) and sexually suggestive dialogue (D). Children's shows with “fantasy violence” (FV) also are labeled.

        Looking for — and understanding — the content warnings is more important this fall for parents, as more adult language creeps into over-the-air network prime-time shows. Crude language will be heard more often this fall — and earlier.

        For example, Fox's Fast-lane, a Miami Vice-style police drama aimed at the 18-34 age group, premiered at 9 p.m. Wednesday with a TV-14-S-L-V-D warning. The show included a violent drug bust and bloody beating of a young woman, off-color words and a reference to having sex in other than the missionary position.

        “The media culture of today now requires constant vigilance by parents. You have to monitor it. It's not easy, it's hard,” says Katherine Montgomery, co-president of the Center for Media Education, a Washington-based non-profit organization.

        But the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board in Washington, D.C., received “less than 50 complaints” last year about the content ratings, and about 60 so far this year, says Rich Taylor, vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America, which oversees the system.

        “That could be indifference, or satisfaction with the system,” he says.

        Experts say parents have found the ratings inconsistent and confusing. Some think that a children's show marked “FV” for fantasy violence means “family values” or “family viewing,” says Amy Jordan, senior research investigator for the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center in Philadelphia.

        The system has no across-the-board consistency, because each network independently applies content ratings according to its own standards, Ms. Mitroff says. (An independent parents board applies theatrical movie ratings for the MPAA, Mr. Taylor says.)

        “It's no wonder people are very confused. It's a complex, unintelligible, inconsistent system,” Ms. Mitroff says. She doubts whether the TV industry “could ever create a completely consistent system, but we could have a better degree of consistency.”

        Parents also are confused because the rating may change, episode by episode, for any program, Ms. Jordan says.

        For example, Channel 19's Friends rerun at 7 p.m. Monday has been rated TV-14-S (may be unsuitable for children under 14; with intense sexual situations). It will be followed at 7:30 p.m. by another Friends rerun rated TV-PG (may be unsuitable for younger children). NBC's Friends season premiere has been labeled TV-14 on Thursday (8 p.m. Channel 5) .

        Wednesday's premiere of Fox's Cedric the Entertainer was rated TV-PG-D-L for suggestive dialogue and graphic language. This week's episode (8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Channels 19, 45), has been rated TV-PG.

        “Were parents to actually use them (content ratings), those warning flags might result in them making better choices,” Ms. Mitroff says.

        Martin D. Franks, a CBS Television executive vice president who helped create the system and served on the monitoring board, says the ratings labels point out important distinctions.

        “Most of network television is a TV-PG medium. So that if something shows up TV-14 or TV-MA, that ought to be a pretty good warning to parents,” Mr. Franks says.

        “The ratings haven't had the impact the proponents had hoped it would,” concedes Mr. Franks, who says he could “count on two hands” the number of complaints CBS receives monthly about content ratings.

        “But I think they help on the margin. We hear from parents who find them useful, particularly on new shows,” Mr. Franks says.

        That few people use the system comes as no surprise to David Poltrack, CBS executive vice president for research and planning.

        “We told Congress at the time when they held hearings ... that we had done research. We knew. We said, "People are not going to use this.' ” he says.

        Not only do many parents ignore the ratings, they also don't make any effort to monitor what their children watch, says Ms. Jordan, who is completing a study of how 150 families use the V-chip blocking technology.

        “Our research shows that at least 50 percent of all children have a TV in their bedroom, and by children I mean as young as 2,” Ms. Jordan says.

        Mr. Jordan and others blame the TV industry for failing to educate the public about the rating definitions.

        “Who's responsible for getting the word out there? It's the television industry, but this was something thrust on them, so it's not surprising,” Ms. Jordan says.

        “I hold the networks and television industry responsible,” says Ms. Montgomery, whose Center for Media Education distributes an 18-page booklet explaining the ratings system to parents. “We're just a little group. There's more the industry could do. But there's always more that the industry could do.”

        Ms. Mitroff remains hopeful that more parents will use the system.

        “It's discouraging, but not totally disheartening,” she says. “We've had movie ratings for 30 years. It took a long time before they become a part of the nomenclature, so it still may happen. But it takes a long time.”

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