FCC Kids Moves Draw Praise from Advocates, Who Say More Can be Done
Two FCC actions concerning children’s media drew praise from kids advocates for giving parents more information about rules by starting a website and showing programmers it takes quick action on what are alleged to be Children’s TV Act violations. The site, www.fcc.gov/parents, has been about a year in the making and its creation was one of Julius Genachowski’s stated first priorities when he became the FCC chairman in June 2009 (CD Aug 21/09 p1). The Media Bureau sought comment Wednesday on a complaint filed last week that a show coming to Viacom’s Nicktoons violates the Act. That’s an unusually quick turnaround. But children’s advocates said the commission could do more to help parents navigate online and older media.
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The new site has information on how to file indecency complaints with the commission. Several advocates said that’s helpful to parents. It also lists children’s TV shows by place. Advocates said that, too, may prove helpful to parents, but it won’t help them find websites for kids or keep pace with the shift to DVR viewing. “We encourage parents to share their practical ideas and insights related to children and communications,” Chief Rachel Kazan of the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau’s Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division wrote on an FCC blog Tuesday. “The website provides a forum for parents and caregivers to share practical ideas about online safety, safe driving and blocking inappropriate content."
The request for comment on a complaint by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood regarding the Zevo-3 show scheduled to start Oct. 11 on Nicktoons (CD Sept 17 p12) shows that the commission will quickly respond to accusations that the Act has been violated, children’s advocates said. The center alleged that the show amounts to a program-length commercial for sneakers because the cartoon characters were developed by Skechers, a brand of sneakers. “We're happy that they did this so quickly, and we believe it shows they're taking this issue very seriously,” said Associate Director Josh Golin of the campaign. Comments are due Oct. 22, replies Nov. 8, in docket 10-190, the bureau said.
"While it’s unfortunate that this comment period will extend into a few episodes of the show, it’s very important that they are working on this,” Golin said. “Part of why we did this is to prevent the floodgates from opening in the future, and we think this is a good step.” Director Jeff McIntyre of Children Now said it’s “nice to see the visibility raised” by the bureau’s move. “I'm hopeful something good comes of it.” Nicktoons doesn’t “believe that the show is a program-length commercial, nor do we agree that its transmission would violate the Children’s Television Act or any of the commission’s rules or policies,” a spokesman said.
The new website is “a really great half-step” forward by the FCC, said McIntyre, who had criticized the FCC as concentrating on broadband at the expense of other matters (CD March 16 p6). “I'd rather have this sort of stuff going on than nothing at all, but I'm not sure it counts as action,” he said. “We've seen a lot of agenda setting from the commission so far, but we've seen very little policy as it pertains to kids.” Editor-in-Chief Liz Perle of Common Sense Media said it seems clear that this commission takes children’s media issues seriously, but there are no easy solutions to lingering problems. Genachowski was on that group’s board before he joined the FCC.
The section of the new FCC website for filing indecency complaints is “a big deal,” Perle said. “Parents write us all the time and say ‘I want to make a complaint, who do I talk to?'” The site’s listing of shows for kids “is a good start,” Perle said. “This is arranged around your ZIP code” and by time of day, “and a lot of the world no longer accesses television content” when it’s first aired on TV, she said.
The site “simply puts in place what was in different locations on the FCC’s website” already, said Policy Director Dan Isett of the Parents Television Council, which asks members to file indecency complaints and has contended that the commission isn’t acting on enough of them. “The commission has done a lot of talking and very little doing” on kids and media, Isett said. The subject was “a centerpiece” of what Genachowski discussed at his Senate confirmation hearing, which touched on indecency, but “it clearly hasn’t been a priority,” said Isett. It shouldn’t have taken the regulator 16 months to start the website, he said.