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<title> Violence on TV - is it possible to control it? </title>
How are parents supposed to control what their children are doing all day? Most children from the age of ten (at least in Sweden) are home alone after school, since both parents normally have to work. Hopefully they are doing some homework, but many children probably spend most of their afternoon in front of their computers or watching TV. The quality of the programs is in Sweden, as well as in America, not very high. Usually it is just a way of spending time the easiest way.
	In America President Bill Clinton introduced the V chip to help parents to control what their children are watching on TV. The V chip is a computer chip that will be installed in television sets. It will cost approximately $5 to $30 extra per television set. The programs on TV will be graded from one to four, depending on how much violence they contain. Every TV will be individually programmed on the appropriate level for that family. What the article do not tell, is weather it is easy or not to reprogram the TV. Maybe the adults in the family want to see a "scary" movie once in a while, or maybe an educational movie is on, such as Schindler's List, which many parents might want their children to see.
	There are some negative aspects to the V chip. One of them, according to Senator Robert Dole, is that the V chip brings us "one step closer to government control of what we see on television". I do not agree with that. The one, who has the power to choose which TV shows that is appropriate for them, is the owner of the television set. If the government can help the people with that, they should appreciate it. If some people do not like it, they can chose not to use the service. 
	The V chip does not take away all violence a child sees in its everyday life. The Internet is a large source for violence and pornography today, and that is a much more difficult thing to stop, since there is no control of what is shown there. There are of course programs that will stop some sites, but they can easily change their names, and that way find their way back in to your home. To see what your children watch on TV is easier to do than to see what they find on the Internet. Some say that a solution is to put the computer in the kitchen, but then you will hear the annoying sound of the games as well. People usually have a special room in the house with the computer, or put their computer in the children's room. That way, children can easily hide what they are doing on the computer when you are not around.
	Is violence on TV such a big problem? Do we really need something to help us select what is okay for us to see? I think it is a hard question to answer. Of course violence on TV influences some young people, but usually they already have big problems to start with. I do not think lack of TV-violence would have helped those people and turned them into "well-adjusted" citizens. Parents who care about, and are interested in, their children and sees that something is going wrong, probably try to control them as much as possible, maybe even stay home during the day. The big problem is the kids whose parents do not care enough. Why would they buy a new TV set, just to get a V chip installed?
	I do not think that the V chip is a good solution to the problem of children watching too much violence on TV. Maybe it will help to a certain age, but soon they realize that they can rent movies or borrow them from friends. Also, it often is in the afternoon children are home alone. During that time there are usually different soaps running on TV and they are seldom very frightening, not even for small children. Will the V chip be able to control what you see on video as well? In that case I think that the V chip might be a good investment for some families.
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