Netflix is the New Primetime Television

I saved Emmy-nominated House of Cards and Orange is the New Black for sick days, but once I started watching, it became clear it would be hard to stop: they were filled with great writing and acting.  However, they were also filled with adult content, which seemed a dramatic change from non-cable primetime television.

This led me to thinking about ratings.  Not rotten tomatoes ratings, but MPAA and similar ratings based on content.  In the second half of the 20^th Century, television, movies, music and video games all made the move to regulate themselves through voluntary parental guidelines to avoid harsher, mandatory regulation by outsiders.   

One of the reasons that television, movies, music, and video games faced pressure to regulate themselves was the ease of access by minors.  It is true that Netflix, on the other hand, is password protected and requires a credit card to subscribe.  Nonetheless, once kids gain access to Netflix, they gain access to everything on Netflix, including adult content, unless the parents set parental controls.

In any event, Netflix original programming is rated based on content just like television—both House of Cards and Orange is the New Black are rated TV-MA.  This offers the same type of voluntary signaling that television, movies, music, and video game ratings do.  While there are certainly ways for minors to circumvent the system—and they do every day—there is some minimum signaling and child-protection efforts after all.