The Chair of the Federal Communications Commission today announced the creation of a task force to study the relationship between television and childhood obesity.

Children watch two to four hours of TV a day, Kevin Martin noted at a press conference, viewing 40,000 advertisements a year, most for candy, cereal, and junk food. "And while the amount of television watched by American kids has been increasing in the past twenty-five years, so have their waistlines," he added.

The Federal Communications Commission has unanimously accepted revised rules that limit the amount of commercial material broadcast on digital television intended for children.

"Today's order protects children from excessive and inappropriate commercial messages in broadcast and cable programming, without unduly impairing the scheduling flexibility of broadcasters and cable operators," the FCC's Media Bureau announced on September 26 at the agency's regularly scheduled Open Commission meeting. All five Commissioners approved the changes.

The decision affects guidelines that the FCC established in 2004, extending the Children's Television Act (CTA) of 1990 to TV stations that choose to begin "multicasting" - ”splitting their digital signal into two or more separate channels. CTA requires broadcasters to provide three hours a week of "core educational programming" for children. The law also sets limits on how much commercial matter these shows can display: no more than 12 minutes per hour on weekdays and 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends.

The Federal Communications Commission will vote at its next Open Meeting on whether to accept a proposal to set educational content requirements and advertising limits for digital television. The Commission has scheduled the meeting for Tuesday, September 26th.

In early February a consortium of children's advocacy groups and industry representatives informed the FCC that they had reached consensus on a "Joint Proposal" regarding children's TV. The parties include Children Now, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Parent Teacher Association, Turner Broadcasting, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC, Discovery, CBS, and Disney.

"It is perfectly understandable" that advertisers target children, FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate told a conference on advertising held this week, "but it may not be entirely fair."

Children don't understand until they are seven or eight that companies design advertisements not to inform, but to persuade, Tate explained. "Until that age they often accept advertisements as fact."

She spoke to the July 20th Children Now Forum, held in Washington, D.C.

"The problem is that this cognitive ability 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," Tate continued.

While the Commissioner, a Republican, conceded that studies on this problem differ, "what I think we all can agree on is that, whatever the specific numbers are, our children are less active and more overweight and therefore less healthy than ever before. Simply put, childhood obesity is an epidemic."

Tate praised various corporations for making progress on this issue, most notably Disney, which recently opted out of its partnership with McDonalds - a move that many observers say was made over concerns about childhood obesity. She also cited General Mills decision to convert its cereal lines to whole grains.

The FCC delayed new regulations on digital television for children on Friday, pending the recommendations of a group of cable companies and public interest groups.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the day before the FCC's move, cable content providers came to an agreement with Children Now of Oakland, California, and several other advocacy groups. High on the list of Children Now's concerns is setting limits on interactive, Internet based advertising, "especially when considering the role that the advertising of unhealthy food products plays in [children's] short and long-term food preferences and consumption habits."