FCC regulations on children's programming

Background and History

The Children’s Television Act specifically regulated children’s television.

Safe Harbor Hours

The term "safe harbor" refers to the hours during which broadcasters may transmit material deemed indecent for children. This "safe harbor", enforced by the Federal Communications Commission, extends—legally—from 10 PM to 6 AM and was established by the US Supreme Court case FCC v. Pacifica. This "safe harbor" is based on evidence that children 17 years of age and under are less likely to be in the audience during these hours. Sexual content and foul language are lawfully channeled to times of the day when children are less likely to be in the broadcast audience. Paradoxically according to some, viewing televised violence is perceived to have a more harmful effect on children than fleeting expletives or brief nudity. With respect to violent program content, the research suggests that younger children are most at risk, possibly requiring a different conclusion as to the ages of children to be protected, the appropriate "safe harbor" hours.

Children's Television Act of 1990

In 1990 Congress unanimously passed and enacted the Children's Television Act (CTA) in order to increase the amount of informational and educational programming available for children on television after increasingly bleak and commercialized children programming landscape. The act displeased many, including both the most loyal supporters of protecting legislation for children and broadcasters alike. Parents and children's advocacy groups disapprove of the way broadcasters are responding to the Act, and broadcasters are uncertain how to respond to the Act's demand that they serve "the educational and informational needs of children." The FCC has adopted the following rules in order to carry out this mandate. Television stations, under FCC rule, must:

Core Programming

Core programs are designed to serve the educational and informational needs of children (ages 16 and under). Core programming must be a regularly scheduled weekly program that is at least thirty minutes in length and aired between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. There is also the "Three-Hour Rule", which states that broadcasters have to air a minimum of 3 hour/week of educational television for children in order for the FCC to have their license renewed. (More information below under 1996 Mandate)

Commercial Time Limits

Children 12 years old and younger are more susceptible than adults to the power of television advertisements, due to their less-developed information-processing capability, which constrains their early understanding of the nature and purpose of television advertising, and their ability to distinguish it from programming. Therefore, the FCC enforces time limits (10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays) on commercials for television shows aimed at this audience, and has required clear, distinct transitions from shows to advertising and back (e.g. "____ will be right back"; "and now back to our show", etc.).

Program-length commercials

Program-length commercials consist of commercials that advertise a product associated with the program being aired. This also includes programs in which a product or service is being advertised within the program. The commercial is not separated from the program, therefore making it a program-length commercial. This has been prohibited due to the FCC's determination that many children are not able to distinguish between the programming and the commercial, which could lead to them thinking the entire program is one big commercial (see Infomercial) - or vice versa. As FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps stated, “Although the kids with their remotes in hand won’t know it, that single click of the button will transport them beyond the regulated world of television, with its restrictions on commercial messages aimed at children, to an Internet bazaar bereft of any rules. Shouldn’t we get a handle on this before really harmful consequences are felt?” A related serious concern is that the impressionability of children can lead to "nag factor" situations; i.e. those brought on by advertisements whose effects are amplified when children are involved. These presumably negative effects can be reduced when the FCC implements measures restricting program-length commercials aimed at children.

Obtaining Children's Programming Information

One of the main goals of the FCC's rules is to provide more information about educational programming to parents and other members of the public. The FCC forces the "E/I" (Educational/Informational) icon to be used to identify core educational programs. Television stations must provide the information identifying these programs to publishers of television guides and television listings. These rules also require television stations to file quarterly reports with the FCC (which are to be made available to the public) regarding their educational programming.

Sex-Role Stereotyping

Studies have found that there has been an increase in male representation over female representation in children's programming. These programs are educational and informational. It was discovered that men tended to have more aggressive roles while females tend to have more passive roles. Additionally, It has been found that these programs have an effect on children's understanding and development of sex roles. This study was presented in an effort to change the future of how children's educational programming is classified.

1996 Mandate

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously passed a regulation that requires television stations to show three hours of children's educational programming each week. Rather than an inflexible three-hour requirement, the nation's television stations are required to either broadcast three hours of regularly scheduled half-hour educational shows for children weekly, or offer enough other programs or public-service activities to fulfill their legal mandate at the discretion of the FCC. The mandate is originally from the Children's Television Act of 1990, which required stations to better serve educational or informational needs of children but set no hourly quota. The law left it to the FCC to determine compliance. Many stations either counted dubious shows, like The Jetsons, as educational, or added some educational shows but scheduled them at 5:30 or 6 A.M. The new rule tightens the definition of educational programming, requiring that it be specifically designed to serve an educational purpose.

Fines

The FCC monitors children’s programming and creates regulations that must be followed specifically for children’s programming, with correlating punishment. The most common way to punish a station for breaking a rule or regulation set in place by the FCC is fines. The fines charged against the stations vary based upon which regulation was violated and the severity of the violation. On average, fines range from $25,000 to $70,000 per station.

One of the largest fines was for $70,000 given for a program that they claimed was of "program length". This occurred when a commercial for a memorabilia website shown during a Yu-Gi-Oh! television program contained a "very brief" reference to Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards. In so doing, the station was considered to have exceeded the commercial limits by the entire length of the program less the number of commercial minutes allowed.

The FCC claim that a Pokémon program was a program length commercial in which a Pokémon game card with the letters "MON" was briefly displayed in a Nintendo Game Boy commercial during the show. In addition they cited other reasons including failing to provide program guide publishers with information regarding the target child audience of core programs; failing to update the public file regarding compliance; and failing to publicize the existence and location of the station's children's television programming reports.

In 2007, the FCC levied a record $24 million fine against the Spanish-language television company Univision for airing a program called Cómplices Al Rescate (in English it translates to "Friends to the Rescue"), which was similar to the American movie The Parent Trap. The movie had the same story line about 11-year-old identical twins, who discovered they were separated at birth and then proceeded to swap lives. The FCC accused Univision of falsely labeling it as an E/I show.

In 2004, Disney and Viacom were fined with $1.5 million after the FCC claimed they went over the commercial time limit. Viacom agreed to pay $1 million while Disney was left to pay $500,000 since their Disney commercials aired on the ABC Family Channel.

Multicasting Rule

This order is a revised version of the educational and informational programming processing guideline that the FCC adopted in 2004 for DTV multicasting. This order clarifies the limit on the repeat of core programs that applies to DTV channels. On the other hand, this does not apply to analog channels. You will now be able to use different episodes of the same program to fulfill your necessities with no time restrictions. Another positive aspect is that you will also be able to use the same episodes that aired in previous weeks on a different stream to do this.

Preemption Rule

In order to qualify a program as "core programming", children's programming must be regularly scheduled. This means that the program must be scheduled to air once per week at the least and must also air on an ordinary basis.

Website Rule

In the 2004 order, the FCC put restrictions of website addresses aired during children's programming. This rule was applied to both analog and digital programming. The FCC's restrictions provided guidelines programmers were forced to follow including:

Host Selling Rule

The Commission has prohibited the use of show hosts or program characters to sell products in commercials aired either during or after the children's programs. Research claims that children don't enjoy a product as much when it is seen by the host characters. There are numerous workarounds to host selling, however.

Promotions Rule: Definition of "Commercial Matter."

In 2004, the definition of "commercial matter" was expanded. This was conformed to the commercial limits for children's programming to include every program promotion other than for children's educational or informational programs. Not only did this cover analog channels, but digital channels too. The new order changed the rules under two conditions: (1) there has to be promotions for educational and informational programming on any channel and (2) there has to be promotions for any children's or other age-appropriate programming to appear on the same channel. This channel is not required to be informational or educational and will not be considered commercial matter.

Action for Children's Television

Action for Children's Television (ACT) was a grass-roots activist group that was founded by Peggy Charren and a group of "housewives and mothers" in her home in Newton, Massachusetts in 1968. The members of A.C.T. were initially concerned with the lack of quality television programming offered to children and were dedicated to improving the quality programming offered to them. In 1970 A.C.T. petitioned the Federal Communications Commission asking that television stations be required to provide more programming for the child viewer. While concerned about "commercial abuses targeted to children," ACT took a stance, in Charren's words, "violently opposed to censorship." Of particular concern was their finding that one-third of all commercials aimed at children were for vitamins. Partially due to their efforts, the FCC enacted rules pertaining to program length commercials, host selling, and the placement of separation devices between commercials and children's programming. A.C.T. was responsible for bringing many cases before the FCC including a major media case law Action for Children's Television, et al. v. Federal Communications Commission and the United States of America (821. F. 2d 741. D.C. Cir. 1987). One of the major successes of A.C.T. was the passing of the Children's Television Act of 1990. Shortly after the passing of this act, Charren announced the closing of Action for Children's Television, suggesting that it was now up to individual citizens' groups to police the airwaves. It was disbanded in 1992. At its peak, A.C.T. included 20,000 volunteer members and an operational budget of up to a half a million dollars. Critics of A.C.T. accused the Action for Children's Television of being pro-censorship or undermining funding for children's programming.