CLINTON SUPPORTS 10-MONTH TEST OF TV RATINGS PROPOSAL.

Byline: Keith Marder Daily News Television Writer

President Clinton said Friday that he is willing to try the television industry's age-based ratings system for 10 months despite opposition to the plan from family advocates, education and religious groups, and several Democratic members of Congress.

A TV ratings system ``has been debated for 10 years. We now have one. We're going to have one a year before televisions have to start including the v-chip. The industry itself has promised to review where they are within 10 months,'' Clinton said at a news briefing announcing his latest Cabinet appointments.

Clinton prefaced his comments by saying that he had not yet seen the proposal set to be presented next week by the TV Ratings Implementation Group.

A day earlier, Motion Picture Association of America President Jack Valenti, who chairs the industry group, vowed to implement their TV ratings plan next month in spite of heavy criticism.

In interviews and surveys, many parents have said they prefer a system similar to the one used by cable networks like HBO, which rates shows according to degrees of sex, profanity and violent content. The TV industry plan would have producers rate shows according to age appropriateness, assigning letters such as K for appropriate for children of all ages and M for mature audiences only.

Critics say decisions about what age a particular show is appropriate for ought to be left to parents.

Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the TV industry has until Feb. 8, 1997, to submit a ratings plan to the Federal Communications Commission, which will then review and approve or reject it.

If rejected, the FCC is to appoint another commission to develop an alternate plan.

Clinton said he would prefer to see the plan come from television executives and programmers.

``This must be an industry-based thing. The government should not be involved in this,'' he said. ``What I think ought to happen is that all the parents in the country ought to look at these ratings . . . check the shows against the ratings, give it 10 months to work. And then if they're inadequate or there needs to be some more content in the rating systems, then after a 10-month test period, we'll be able to make that argument, I think - all of us.

``And I think the industry has shown that they're interested in doing something here,'' Clinton said.

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who wrote the provision of the Telecommunications Act that requires v-chips be installed in TV sets starting in 1998, and a proponent of content-based ratings, said he would write Clinton a letter, underlining his misgivings about the industry plan and requesting a meeting.

``There is nothing wrong with a trial. But we should not spend 10 months with a system that child psychologists, pediatricians, religious leaders and educators agree is seriously flawed,'' Markey said.

In a meeting with reporters in Washington on Thursday to preview the ratings plan, Valenti said TV executives would fight in court any effort by the government to impose a system other than the industry's.

FCC Chairman Reed Hundt told trade publication reporters in a regular meeting that Valenti's threat to sue would not dissuade the FCC from living up to its obligations under the Telecommunications Act.