More FCC Efforts on Children’s Media Sought by Some, as Industry Ramps Up Efforts
The FCC ought to move on several proceedings that have been pending for years on limiting the amount of commercials children see on cable and broadcast TV, and curbing interactive ads televised to them, children’s advocates told us. Two groups last week asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to act on rulemakings and inquiries started as early as 2008, and also act on requests made in 2004 to deny license renewals to TV stations that broke children’s ad rules.
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The commission doesn’t seem poised to deliver on any initiatives begun under Genachowski and Kevin Martin before him, an executive and the advocates said. Children Now and the American Academy of Pediatrics said the commission needs to step in and mandate White House guidelines on ads for junk foods, because industry hasn’t done enough. Representatives for the NAB and NCTA had no comment.
Industry is working on the issue of encouraging children to eat healthy, said ex-Commissioner Deborah Tate, who’s spearheading some of those efforts as co-chairman of the Healthy MEdia Commission. “We're trying to have the first dialogue on healthy kids’ media,” and a few dozen companies and stakeholders are involved, said Tate, a Republican commissioner 2005-2009. “I'm always interested in having collaborative public-private conversations, and I think this is going to be a really healthy start,” and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is among those involved, Tate said. “I usually like to start out educating the industry and asking them to step forward with self-regulatory” plans and “we're going to see some of those,” she continued.
Children’s advocates want the commission to do more, and some said they're disappointed Genachowski hasn’t delivered after saying just before he became chairman in 2009 and shortly afterwards that he wanted to focus on the issue (CD Sept 23/10 p6). They noted the commission hasn’t wrapped up rulemakings and inquiries to update children’s rules for interactive ads, propose new parental controls other than V chips and act to limit what the groups say is an ad aimed at children masquerading as a show on a Viacom network. The company had no comment.
The agency ought to block license renewals to WPXW Manassas, Va., and WDCA Washington, subject to petitions to block the licenses in 2004, and WUAB Cleveland dating from 2006 over allegations they didn’t follow the Children’s TV Act, the pediatrics’ academy and Children Now wrote Genachowski. They want the commission to issue rules on interactive ads and product placement that was the subject of a 2008 rulemaking notice and notice of inquiry and a petition in 2010 seeking a ruling that Nicktoons’ Zevo-3 violates the act because it’s a program-length ad for Skechers sneakers. A Media Bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
Advocates had understood the commission had been busy with other issues like reviewing AT&T’s plan to buy T-Mobile, which the companies aborted in December, Comcast’s purchase of control of NBCUniversal that was OK'd about a year ago, and not having two of five members, Children Now Director Jeff McIntyre told us. With the “stalemate in Congress about putting new commissioners on,” he and allies are concerned about “a reluctance to address these issues,” he said. “At least give us a time frame for this.” The commission’s broadband infrastructure and digital literacy efforts are good, but need to be accompanied by “substance to put behind it” on youth programming and other issues, McIntrye said. “It’s time to pony up -- kids are a priority or they're not,” he said: “A lot of promises were made at the start of the administration,” though “these things remain undone and we're very concerned about the lack of action."
Genachowski’s work with executives and other government officials including Education Secretary Arne Duncan on access to electronic textbooks is promising, Tate said. “The commission is great at being a convenor, and the chairman is doing some really great, collaborative efforts,” she said. “In this whole transition period” to more media consumption online, “I think it’s a really good step and positive for the dialogue to continue, for as kids spend more and more time online, how do those rules migrate over to their online media consumption?"
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is disappointed the commission hasn’t acted on its complaint against Zevo-3, on which the agency sought public comment in 2010, said Associate Director Josh Golin. “The show has run for two years now, and we haven’t heard from the commission -- and frankly this FCC has not put children’s issues on the front burner,” he added. “We thought given who the chairman was, that there would be significantly more attention to children’s issues.”