Foul Language Filter

Erica asked me to explain the filter I bought for the television. Here is the cover of the box, with Mary Lou Retton as the spokesperson.
I had heard about these devices some time ago, but couldn't figure out how they worked. What it does is read the closed captioning. It does not "bleep" the foul language, it just blots it out with silence. It replaces it with a subtitle line that conveys the gist of the utterance in normal language that tries to convey the urgency, such as "Get yourself over here now!"
This is the box itself. It connects just like any other device--with cables. It has three settings--you can block only the most foul language or you can block everything, and then one setting in between.

The only drawback for me is that I use the closed captioning and with this device it must be turned off. I play the television at a very low volume when Henry is asleep and I can still tell what is going on by reading the captions. And you would be surprised how much is inaudible such as background mumblings that is written out in the closed captioning. Of course it's usually not essential to understand what is going on, but it sometimes interesting. And it is often amusing to see how noises are described--something that just sounds like a rustling noise to me might be described in closed captioning as "heavy footfalls from above" or something like that.

I must say I haven't really had a chance to test it out because I haven't watched anything that has bleepable language. Maybe when the new television season starts I'll have a chance to see better how effective it is.