02-08-2010, 23:29
In the latest Broadcast Bulletin, Ofcom quotes its Media Literacy Report saying only 32% of viewers actually use parental controls.
It sort of misses the point that in the vast number of households - even ones with children - this is BY CHOICE.
Figure 39 of the Media Literacy report, titled "Reasons for not having set up access controls for the multichannel television service, by age - 2009" on PDF page 51 (numbered 48 because Ofcom cant get its page numbering right) makes interesting reading. For households with children age 12-15, the age at which boys and girls are most likely to understand what they are seeing and either be offended by it, or actively seek it out, reasons in 2009 broke down like this:
Trust child to be sensible: 60%*
Child is supervised: 13%*
Child too young for this to be a problem: 0% (not applicable)*
Child too old for controls: 16%*
Did not know this was possible: 7%+
Don't know how to do this: 6%+
They would always find a way to override controls: 3%+
No need: 1%*
Child does not watch a lot of TV: 1%*
(UNAWARE HOW: 13% is a combination of two of the above items)
The items I have marked with a * are parents who, one way or another, are not bothered. The ones marked + are bothered.
Thats 91% not bothered and 16% are bothered. Yes, I know that adds up to 107%. Lets be charitable and put it down to rounding - correcting for that gives 85% not bothered, 15% are bothered. And remember, thats just out of the 32% who do not set parental controls. So 15% of 32% (or 4.8%) are bothered but do not know how to set parental controls (or consider them ineffective).
Only 4.8% of all parents of 12-15 year olds want parental controls but can't use them. According to Ofcom.
Thats a long way off their headline figure of 32% of households not using parental controls.
It sort of misses the point that in the vast number of households - even ones with children - this is BY CHOICE.
Figure 39 of the Media Literacy report, titled "Reasons for not having set up access controls for the multichannel television service, by age - 2009" on PDF page 51 (numbered 48 because Ofcom cant get its page numbering right) makes interesting reading. For households with children age 12-15, the age at which boys and girls are most likely to understand what they are seeing and either be offended by it, or actively seek it out, reasons in 2009 broke down like this:
Trust child to be sensible: 60%*
Child is supervised: 13%*
Child too young for this to be a problem: 0% (not applicable)*
Child too old for controls: 16%*
Did not know this was possible: 7%+
Don't know how to do this: 6%+
They would always find a way to override controls: 3%+
No need: 1%*
Child does not watch a lot of TV: 1%*
(UNAWARE HOW: 13% is a combination of two of the above items)
The items I have marked with a * are parents who, one way or another, are not bothered. The ones marked + are bothered.
Thats 91% not bothered and 16% are bothered. Yes, I know that adds up to 107%. Lets be charitable and put it down to rounding - correcting for that gives 85% not bothered, 15% are bothered. And remember, thats just out of the 32% who do not set parental controls. So 15% of 32% (or 4.8%) are bothered but do not know how to set parental controls (or consider them ineffective).
Only 4.8% of all parents of 12-15 year olds want parental controls but can't use them. According to Ofcom.
Thats a long way off their headline figure of 32% of households not using parental controls.
