Mary Whitehouse, eat your heart out. A new DVD player that allows you edit out bad language, nudity and violence from movies has just been launched in the US.
The RCA DVD player will filter any content you don’t want your children to see as the disc is played, instead of using the tried and trusted method of fast forwarding through the scary bits and muting the outbursts of bad language.
It uses Clearplay software to filter the films, with over 100 pre-programmed filters loaded on to the DVD player. Fourteen sub-categories cover everything you could possibly need to edit out, ranging from the mild (‘vain reference to deity’) to the more extreme (‘Graphic violence’). You can even cut out scenes that show explicit drug use, any kind of nudity and what they term ‘sensual’ content.
The filters are created by ClearPlay’s ‘movie experts’, who screen the films and identify anything that may have given the film a ‘PG-13’ or ‘R’ rating. When you want to watch the DVD, you simply activate the filters you want applied to the films and it’s ready to go. When the filters detect content that you have opted to block, it will either skip over it or mute the sound. Sounds simple enough, right?
Keeping the filters updated is another thing, however. The film filters must be bought from ClearPlay, and either sent out on CD to ClearPlay’s customers or downloaded and burned to a CD at home. The CD can then be placed in the DVD player to update the filters with new titles. The DVD player will hold about 300 filters at one time.
This isn’t exactly a new idea. The Clearplay software has been in existence before now; it was offered to those who wanted to watch cleaned-up versions of DVDs on their PC. However, it wasn’t as popular as the software makers hoped. And existing parental control technology includes the V-chip, which hasn’t exactly been over-used.
Recent events, however, may change this situation. Given the country’s reaction to Janet Jackson’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ on live TV, this new move shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. While Middle America expressed its outrage at the stunt, Tivo reported that it was the most popular moment of the night as users replayed it.
The US Federal Complaints Commission has made it its mission to crack down on indecency on the airwaves, imposing heavy fines on shock-jock Howard Stern’s radio show. Despite America’s fierce protection of free speech, it appears it’s not quite as liberal as it sounds.
With ClearPlay now trying to clean up Hollywood, it was bound to meet resistance from some quarters. Not surprisingly, the movie industry has come out in opposition to the software, with legal action already in the pipeline.
ClearPlay has already been named in a lawsuit taken by the Directors Guild of America in 2002 against a number of distributors, who it claims are altering its members’ work without their permission.
Looking at Clearplay’s website, the list of movies is a bit perplexing. You want to remove the bad language from Seabiscuit so it’s all-round family viewing – that’s understandable. But I’d love to know what objectionable material could possibly be found in See Spot Run, ET, Cats and Dogs and Shrek. There’s something a little disturbing about relying on a piece of technology to shield your children from sex, drugs and violence.
If the film has content you wouldn’t like them to see, the simple answer is to not let them watch it at all, rather than a piecemeal effort like the RCA DVD player offers.
This new technology does seem to go a step further, however. Can you imagine watching a violence-free version of Pulp Fiction? Or removing vulgar references from There’s Something About Mary?
ClearPlay denies that it is trying to censor content. But what one person finds offensive, someone else may not. So wouldn’t it be better to let everyone make up their own minds, and save the 18s-rated films for when children are actually old enough to watch them?
17/05/04
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