KID VID
ACT v. FCC (DC Cir. 1987)
FCC withdrawl of Children's Television Commercialization Guidelines held to be arbitrary rulemaking.
Children's Television Act of 1990
The CTA imposes an affirmative obligation on broadcast television stations to serve the educational and informational needs of children through not only their "overall programming," but also programming "specifically designed" to serve children's needs.
- Limit advertising during "childrens' programming" to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 per hour on weekdays.
- At renewal, FCC required to consider whether a station has complied with limits and served the "educational and informational needs" of children in its overall broadcasting.
- Establish the National Endowment for Children's Educational Programming
- Applies to both over-the-air broadcasting and cablecasting.
FCC NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING (April 5, 1995)
Revision of Programming Policies for Television Broadcast Stations
MM Docket No. 93-48 (1996)
We conclude that our initial regulations implementing the CTA have not been fully effective in prompting broadcasters "to increase the amount of educational and informational broadcast television programming available to children." Our review of the record in this proceeding reveals several problems.
- First, because of their imprecision in defining the scope of a broadcaster's obligation under the Children's Television Act, our rules have led to a variation in the level and nature of broadcasters' compliance efforts that is incompatible with the intent of the CTA. In so doing, our rules fail to adequately counterbalance the marketplace disincentives as Congress intended when it enacted the CTA. Indeed, some broadcasters are carrying very little regularly scheduled standard length programming specifically designed to educate and inform children.
- Second, some broadcasters are claiming to have satisfied their statutory obligations with shows that, by any reasonable benchmark, cannot be said to be "specifically designed" to educate and inform children within the meaning of the CTA.
- Third, parents and others frequently lack timely access to information about the availability of programming in their communities specifically designed to educate and inform children, exacerbating market disincentives.
Alcohol
and Tobacco on the Web: New Threats to Youth
In
the Matter of Policies and Rules Concerning Children's Television
Programming (1996)
Staff
Reports on Children's Educational Television
FCC
Children's Educational Television Information Page |
