Apparently I am no longer one of few Americans concerned with the state of children's television and its close ties to modern advertising. As previously posted by LLFCC, several groups of public interest advocates have begun to call children's educational programming into question.

Currently, the FCC only requires broadcasters to show a mere 3 hours of education television per WEEK. The fact that stations are finding it difficult to comply with such a pitiful minimum is, in itself, unbelievable. Furthermore, the shows that are being used to allegedly promote the education of our youth along with the shows that are specifically designed to appeal to children under the age of 16 are horrible in that they provide no intellectual material whatsoever and, in some cases, subtly promote malicious ideals. Among these shows being specifically targeted by the FCC are the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and the Winx Club.

I'll confess that I, as a child, used to be a fan of Power Rangers. What child of the late 1980s or early 1990s wasn't? However, in retrospect, I now recognize that the show provided me with absolutely no beneficial material. There was no promotion of moral values, no useful facts or educational material to promote my growth as a child... nothing. I simply spent hours glued to the television watching the masked good guys beating up the bad guys, over and over again. I've even heard several arguments (admittedly from my peers) that, as outrageous as they are, claim that the show is actually racist. I believe that one individual's exact words were, "Dude, are you kidding? Power Rangers was like the most racist show ever when we were growing up. The black ranger was black, the yellow ranger was Asian, and the nerd had blue balls!" Like the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and their theme of "good vs. evil," the Winx Club provides a completely different legacy: biased gender roles.

"Don't touch my hair."
Is the Winx Club educational TV?

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) may give television high marks for children's educational programming, but a group of public interest advocates say that the industry has yet to make the honor roll.

On September 4th, both the NAB and the Children's Media Policy Coalition (CMPC) filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission, offering dramatically different assessments of the state of children's educational TV.

"Broadcasters are providing an abundance of high quality, diverse programming that amply meets the educational and informational needs of children," the NAB filing concludes in response to an FCC proceeding on the state of kid's television.

But the CMPC doesn't see it that way; the group includes Children Now, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Benton Foundation, the National PTA, and the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ.

The coalition acknowledges that broadcasters generally comply with FCC requirements that they provide three hours a week of educational TV. But they say that beyond that, children's television has a long way to go.

Maybe the authors didn't think it was important. Or maybe they forgot, but for whatever reason, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America doesn't have much to say about junk food ads on TV.

The study, just released by the Trust for America's Health, is all over the news with its mediagenic ranking of states with the highest obesity levels (Mississippi wins the Plumpness Prize; 30.6 percent of its residents qualify as obese).

The 120 page survey faults the United States for lacking a national plan to combat the epidemic of overweightness and obesity that has swept the country over the past two decades.

"Individuals are often told to take personal responsibility and lose weight . . . " F as in Fat observes. "More than $35 billion is spent annually on weight loss-related products and services. Clearly, the strategy of focusing on personal responsibility alone is failing."

But the report fails to acknowledge an obvious point: every day television, newspaper and Internet advertising urges millions of Americans to gain weight, to consume cheeseburgers, candy, potato chips, fatty cereals, and megasodas like the McDonalds Hugo—a 42 oz, 410 calorie cannister of sugar, water, and food coloring the size of a small fire extinguisher.

It's not that F as in Fat doesn't know that this is a problem. One of its five recommendations for government action is for the Federal government to "develop guidelines regarding the advertising and marketing to children and youth by convening a national conference."

At first glance, the Federal Communications Commission's new report says that television violence makes children more aggressive, and that present policies do not protect them.

The evidence "indicates that the current technology 'fix,' including but not limited to consumer understanding of the technology and voluntary ratings system, is not effective in protecting children from violent programming," the agency concludes.

The FCC's recommended remedies include allowing consumers to pick and choose which cable channels to buy "a la carte," opt-in/out packages for cable package buyers, or Congressional laws restricting violent programming to late hours.

But while the Report on Violent Programming and Its Impact on Children presents a disturbing overview of the TV viewing habits of toddlers, its fine print is far more tentative. A second reading suggests that the document, released this week, hedges on firm analytical conclusions about the problem.

Facts and impacts

The Report opens with overview data:

The Federal Communications Commission has cited two television stations for airing "program length commercials" aimed at children, a violation of the Children's Television Act (CTA).

TV stations KMAX of Sacramento, California and WYCW of Ashville, North Carolina received the letters of admonishment on April 4th. Their respective owners, Sacramento Television Stations and Media General, have applied for FCC license renewals.

In its renewal application, Media General admitted that WYCW broke CTA rules, most notably the FCC's ban on displaying the characters from a children's show in a commercial aired before or after the program.

In December of 2006, WYCW ran a CW Network advertisement for Post Cereal’s Cocoa Pebbles during an episode of Xiaolin Showdown. The commercial displayed images from Post Cereal's postopia.com Web site, which included small images of characters from Xiaolin Showdown.

This turned the Xiaolin show into a "program length commercial," in FCC parlance. CTA rules discourage such advertising, because children cannot tell the difference between commercial matter and programming matter, and can be easily induced to want products that a children's show character appears to endorse.

A task force of 23 organizations and five individuals will hold their first meeting on "media and childhood obesity" on February 14th.

Although the Federal Communications Commission will not manage the group's activities, three FCC Commissioners will serve as participants: FCC Chair Kevin Martin, and Commissioners Deborah Taylor Tate and Michael Copps.

"Government cannot and should not be responsible for solving every societal problem; however, this affects not only our nation's health but our budget as well," Tate declared in a press release praising the group.

The first meeting comes as a follow-up to the agency's approval of new rules for children's advertising on digital television. The guidelines manage the extent to which advertisers can market food and other products during TV  programming intended for toddlers.

In September, after years of argument, debate, litigation, and, in the end, dialogue and compromise, the Federal Communications Commission approved far reaching guidelines for children's television in the digital age. A diverse coalition of negotiators submitted these rules to the FCC, including Children Now, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Parent Teacher Association, Turner Broadcasting, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC, Discovery, CBS, and Disney. After a relatively short period of public notice, the Agency approved them.

Two things are at stake in this proceeding; first, the health, both mental and physical, of our children. As FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate has observed, the inherent inability of children to tell the difference between commercials and reality, "combined with the prevalence of unhealthy foods and a more sedentary lifestyle have created a perfect storm that has made childhood obesity a nationwide problem."

In addition, the subtlest rephrasing of any of these rules can add or subtract millions of dollars in profits for corporate media the advertisers they serve.

And so it should come as no surprise that the new children's digital TV rules came after a long, hard struggle. "We had moments when I didn't think that we were going to reach agreement because everybody had something important at stake," former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani told LLFCC in an interview about the rules.