Twenty-nine years ago today, December 19, 1996 (November 9, 1996 in the lunar calendar), American television programs were classified. On December 19, 1996, a program rating system designed to help American parents guide their children to watch TV was officially introduced. But as soon as this system was unveiled, it caused heated debate in the film and television industry. The TV grading system in the United States can be said to have emerged after a long time. Earlier this year, several major TV broadcast networks in the United States and some big-name program producers in Hollywood, forced by social pressure and the calls of young parents, agreed in principle to divide TV programs that are currently developing increasingly beyond traditional ethics into different levels like movies, so as to facilitate parents to guide their children to watch TV. In February of this year, the United States promulgated a new Electronic Communications Law, requiring television programs to be classified and newly produced TVs to be equipped with vision chips (V. CHIP). The chip allows parents to selectively temporarily disconnect or connect a certain TV channel. Clinton, who was preparing to run for re-election at that time, took "caring for the growth of young people" as one of his important programs. Not only did he call TV giants to the White House to discuss the matter, but he also praised this TV chip in public as a great invention that benefits the country and the people. Since then, American society has been paying attention to the development of this system, especially how different it is from the 28-year-old film classification system. The newly launched method divides programs into six levels according to different age groups. Starting in early 1997, the level of the program being played will be displayed in the upper left corner of all television screens in the United States, except news and sports programs. Specifically, he said, level Y means suitable for children at all stages of development, and even children aged 2 to 6 can watch it; level Y7 is suitable for children over 7 years old, and the program may contain mild recreational violence or may be a little scary; level G is suitable for people of all ages and has no violence or pornography; level PG means that children need to watch it under the guidance of their parents, which may include rough work, limited violence and sexual language; Level 14 reminds parents that children under the age of 14 should not watch it; M-level programs contain obvious violent and pornographic content and are only suitable for adults. This system is exactly the same as the film grading system. In fact, it was planned by Hollywood graders. This set of measures caused heated debate even before it was introduced. Critics in society accuse the grading of being still too vague. They suggest that it should be graded based on content rather than focusing on age, and that the severity of violence, pornographic language or footage in the program should be indicated so that parents can have a clearer concept. They also accused it of being irresponsible to ask television networks or distribution companies to rate themselves rather than having them decide by an independent committee, as in movies. Television giants insist. They say the grading method imitates movies and has become familiar and accepted by the general public. As for self-rating, it is because the production speed of TV is too fast. Even if TV stations self-rating, they still have to approve at least 2000 programs every day, which is much more cumbersome than movies. U.S. President Bill Clinton met with TV network and Hollywood tycoons at the White House that day. He came out to smooth things over and said that this method was a big step forward than no method. The public should give the television industry 10 months to make adjustments and improvements. Bosses of American television stations also admit that appropriate changes can be made to the established methods.