Seventy-four percent of U.S. mothers play videogames, according to findings of a survey released Tuesday by the Entertainment Software Association. ESA said that among the moms who play videogames, 75 percent do so on a weekly basis and 38 percent play daily. While they play on a variety of platforms, smartphones and other mobile devices are the most popular among the demographic, with 65 percent of moms using them for game play, it said. Other findings: Thirty percent of mom gamers with kids 5-12 said videogames helped them connect with their kids; 32 percent of them believed videogames helped them improve their cognitive skills; and 71 percent of them said they closely monitored videogame content for their kids. NPD conducted the survey for ESA among a U.S. representative sample of about 2,500 adult females with kids under the age of 18 in the household, said ESA. Respondents who qualified as mom gamers said they played videogames on at least one system or device, including a smartphone, videogame console, portable game console or computer, it said.

MTV’s “sexually charged” Video Music Awards demonstrate why consumers should have a la carte cable, said the Parents Television Council in a press release Monday. The awards show was rated as appropriate for children 14 and up but included a condom ad in the first commercial break and overly sexualized performances from Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga, PTC said. “MTV marketed adults-only material to children while falsely manipulating the content rating to make parents think the content was safe for their children,” said PTC Director of Public Policy Dan Isett. “MTV continues to sexually exploit young women by promoting acts that incorporate ’twerking’ in a nude-colored bikini,” he said. PTC said a “solution” for future VMA programs is the Television Consumer Freedom Act, an a la carte bill introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz (CD May 10 p3).

The three separate reviews of national surveillance programs that have been announced are insufficient because they'll be “unable to find out the full details needed to stop the government’s abuse of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” EFF Senior Attorney Mark Jaycox wrote in a blog post last week (http://bit.ly/16FIz7p). The review being done by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board can’t compel agencies to turn over information, he wrote: It “is unable to fulfill its mission as it has no choice but to base its analysis on a steady diet of carefully crafted statements from the intelligence community.” The Senate Intelligence Committee -- which has also said it will review the surveillance programs -- has “time and time again ... failed at providing any semblance of oversight,” he wrote. Finally, the review being directed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is “full of insiders and not directed to look at the extensive abuse,” meaning it “will never get at the bottom of the unconstitutional spying,” Jaycox wrote.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals directed the FCC to reconsider a 2005 order prohibiting all LECs from relying on non-access traffic tariffs. In an unpublished opinion last week (http://1.usa.gov/1fePcD1), Judges Alfred Goodwin, Stephen Reinhardt and Marsha Berzon said the FCC “did not discuss or analyze the effects of eliminating these tariffs among rural local exchange carriers.” A court can’t substitute its own judgment for that of an agency, but the agency must still examine the relevant data and articulate a satisfactory explanation for its action, the court said. “Because the Order does not disclose that the FCC examined the effects of eliminating non-access traffic tariffs for rural local telephone companies and the FCC did not explain its order, we remand for further consideration."

About 250 people attended the New York Public Service Commission’s hearing on Verizon’s Voice Link service Saturday, said a PSC spokesman. He said Commissioner Patricia Acaompora heard 39 comments at the public-statement hearing. New York State Sen. Phil Boyle (R), who attended, told us he was surprised by the number of complaints. Some customers reported their calls were getting dropped and the voice was muffled, he said. The service would not call certain numbers and has no option for a busy signal, a businessman told the commission, said Boyle, who also testified. “I expressed my concerns about getting through to fire and EMS at the hearing,” he said Monday. “I'm very concerned as a state senator and as as volunteer firefighter that emergency calls can go through. People need to be able to get someone on the line when they actually need to, when it is a life or death situation.”

Google’s Chromecast device is expected to take the smart set-top box and dongle market to more than 18 million units this year, higher than expected, said ABI Research. The dongle/smart set-top box market is forecast to grow at a 10.8 percent compound annual growth rate through 2018, fueled by developing markets including Asia-Pacific and Latin America, it said. “Despite stiff competition from a range of connected CE devices, the smart set-top box and dongle market offers an equally compelling user experience often at significantly lower price points,” said analyst Michael Inouye. Chromecast sets a “new low price bar” for the connected CE market and as more apps are added to its library, “its value-to-price ratio will continue to grow,” he said. Over time, new technologies such as a mobile high-definition link will add more dongle form factors to the set-top box market, he said. The low price of these devices will let lower-tier TV manufacturers separate the connected TV component for a cost-effective solution to connected TV, said Inouye. That will give customers the option of upgrading to the connected platform when they can without replacing the TV or purchasing “costly and proprietary upgrade modules,” he said. On the content side, if Sony secures the rights to distribute live cable channels from Viacom, this type of partnership could lead to a future “quite different from the one many are accustomed to today,” said Sam Rosen, ABI analyst. He said content holders are already forging more direct relationships with viewers, adding that pay-TV operators are “likewise evolving and adapting to this changing market environment.” The “amalgamation of Pay TV” and over-the-top video will become increasingly important, he said. Google TV could grow into a role as a “bridge, or new entrants like Microsoft’s Xbox One might fully realize this unified vision,” Rosen said.

U.S. intelligence agencies should update their procedures for the collection, retention and dissemination of information about U.S. persons, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board wrote in a letter last week to Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. “Key procedures that form the guidelines to protect ‘information concerning United States persons’ have not comprehensively been updated, in some cases in almost three decades, despite dramatic changes in information use and technology,” the board wrote. The letter asks that intelligence agencies have, by Oct. 31, “an agency-by-agency schedule establishing a time frame for updating each agency’s guidelines” that takes into account “both the evolution of technology and the roles and capabilities of the Intelligence Community since 9/11.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence responded Monday with a statement (http://bit.ly/16FGXum) expressing its willingness to work with the board. “We recognize the importance of reviewing and, as appropriate, updating the guidelines in light of” the changes discussed in the board’s letter, Civil Liberties Protection Officer Alexander Joel wrote. “We welcome the PCLOB’s interest, and will, in coordination with the Department of Justice, continue to provide the PCLOB with information regarding these matters."

AT&T has expanded the 45 Mbps tier of AT&T’s U-verse broadband service to an 40 additional markets, AT&T said Monday. The telco is upgrading its U-verse speeds to 45 Mbps as part of its Project Velocity network upgrade plan; it said it eventually wants to offer a U-verse tier with a 100 Mbps downstream speed. The 45 Mbps tier costs about $76 a month by itself, or $49.95 as part of a “triple play” bundle with voice and TV service. AT&T originally introduced the 45 Mbps U-verse tier in July for markets in California and Nevada. The faster service is now available in: Birmingham, Huntsville-Decatur-Florence and Mobile, Ala.; Hartford and New Haven, Conn.; Jacksonville, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce, Fla.; Atlanta; Champaign and Chicago, Ill.; Indianapolis and South Bend-Elkhart, Ind.; Louisville, Ky.; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, La.; Detroit, Flint-Saginaw, Grand Rapids and Lansing, Mich.; Biloxi-Gulfport and Jackson, Miss.; Charlotte, Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem and Raleigh, N.C.; Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo, Ohio; Charleston, Columbia and Greenville, S.C.; Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Green Bay-Appleton, Madison and Milwaukee, Wis. (http://soc.att.com/15crYYw).

There’s “virtually no risk of misuse” of Cisco IP Captioned Telephone Service (CTS) phones in the workplace, and the FCC’s default-off rule denies critical access to a service that greatly helps employees, Purple Communications told agency officials in voicemails Friday (http://bit.ly/1feJ6SW). Consumers accessing Cisco IP phones in the workplace do so on a dedicated extension or in a private office, Purple said. “It is extremely unlikely that these phones will be misused.” The commission’s default-off requirement “imposes an undue burden” on users of the phones in the workplace and “unfairly subjects them to discrimination,” Purple said. “A significant percentage of the beginning of each phone call can be lost if the user does not remember to activate this feature,” the company said. “The delay causes embarrassment, lack of confidence, and hinders ability to perform core work duties,” Purple said.

The FCC should deny Lenfest’s must-carry complaint against RCN Telecom for Delaware County, Pa., because Lenfest’s WMCN-TV Atlantic City doesn’t have a signal of sufficient strength, said RCN in an opposition filing Friday (http://bit.ly/1di23rf). Lenfest said in a July filing that its station qualifies for must-carry status (CD July 3 p14), but RCN said WMCN “doesn’t deliver an adequate off-air signal” to RCN’s headend in Northampton, Pa.