Focus on the Family is teaming up with TVGuardian to provide clean entertainment choices for families through the TVGuardian filter, a device that eliminates objectionable language from television shows.
Penned as a “foul language filter” for HDTV’s, the device seeks to protect children not only from all foul language, but also from offensive religious slurs, sexual references, and other inappropriate phrases.
“Parents are continuously bombarded with media messages that are at odds with how they are raising their children,” Rich Bennett, vice president of Focus on the Family’s Strategy Office, said in a statement Wednesday.
“Many are at a loss as to how to combat this as technology advances and objectionable entertainment content increases. TVGuardian is an essential resource in helping parents create positive, safe entertainment experiences that affirm their family values.”
According to a recent study, profanity on prime-time television was reported to have increased since 2005 by 69 percent. With TVGuardian, parents are now able to enjoy all the prime time TV shows with their children without worry over the content.
A small unit that connects to television sets, TVG is able to automatically mute all forms of profanity and inappropriate language from broadcast television, cable, satellite and DVDs.
It also offers a pop up profanity-free alternative to the muted phrase. For example, a phrase like “Move your a#%!” would be muted and “Move your tail!” would pop up instead, so families could still follow along with the story.
Television shows and movies can be watched live or played back on DVRs without all the smut.
So how exactly does the device work to eliminate all that offends?
TVGuardian’s patented technology reads the hidden closed-caption text in the background, which is required by law to have on television, checking each word against a dictionary of over 150 offensive words and phrases. (For DVDs that are not required by law to have closed-captions, only DVDs that have a “CC” logo on the back of the box will work.)
With multiple filter settings ranging from “strict” to “tolerant,” parents can filter as little or as much as they choose.
More than 12 million TVGuardians are already in homes, proving to help families…..
…Bennett explained that TVGuardian applies best to PG and PG-13 movies that would have been fine –almost completely free of objectionable content – except for the language.
“Most movies with sex, nudity or violence are generally advertised and promoted as such. But with foul language, you never know when and where it’s going to show up. That’s why so many viewers find it so upsetting.”
And that was exactly how TVGuardian got its start as well.
When founder Rick Bray was watching “E.T.” with his family one day while on a family vacation, he was shocked to discover more than a dozen cuss words in the PG-rated movie. Brainstorming a possible solution for more family-friendly entertainment, TVGuardian was born…
….TVGuardian is the newest part of Focus on the Family’s Family Safety Suite, which provides parents with resources and information to help become a tech-savvy guardian in the digital age, offering other filtering devices like Bsecure Online, which regulates online content as well.
Now I am quite supportive of parents who limit their young children’s exposure to TV. I am less concerned about curse words than I am children vegetating in front of the TV hours at a time. (and the same could be said for computers, game consoles, etc)
In the real world children are going to hear curse words. My grandkids are going to hear Grandpa damn a ref or two. Hopefully, I will be disciplined enough not to teach them where I want the umpire to stick his flag. 
I don’t needlessly curse around my grandchildren but if it happens it happens. I am not going to have an existential crisis over my grandchildren hearing Grandpa curse.
The TVGuardian box costs 210.00. It basically works by monitoring the closed-caption feed
for curse words and when one is found it blocks it. Our family actually used one of these when they first came out. It is was very much a hit and miss technology, and it did not work very well with satellite TV so we returned it.
The bigger issue here is the whole notion of “protecting” children from the world. Groups like Focus on the Family promote isolating children (and adults) from the world. Immerse them in “Christian” everything and all will be well. Sadly, what this type of thinking results in is teenagers and young adults who can not cope with the “real” world. Young adults, isolated from any real life world experience, enter the work force and are often shell-shocked to hear cursing, off color jokes, etc. The world is a wild and wooly place and sadly far too many young (age wise) Christians get eaten-alive when they are confronted with a world they were never prepared for.
Every parent must decide how best to prepare their children for the real world. Children need to learn that the Christian compound they grew up in is not the “real” world. I have no objection to Christian parents who raise their children in the Christian faith. However, it is criminal to not prepare a child to work, live, and interact in a world that has no interest in the Christian God.
I know of Christian parents who see no need to teach their children about sex because their children are going to be virgins when they marry. (and the same goes for drugs, alcohol, and all the other dangers found in the real world) This is head in the sand thinking and the many of the readers of this blog can testify to the tragic result such thinking brings.
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