ABERNATHY SEES CHANGES AFOOT IN KIDS’ PROGRAMMING WITH DIGITAL
FCC Comr. Abernathy, speaking on panel on children’s programming, said Fri. that she had been having informal talks with broadcasters on ways to make parents more aware of educational children’s TV programming since various formats of TV guides didn’t make that information available and current ratings system wasn’t specific enough to contain such information. Speaking on same panel, Rep. Markey (D-Mass.) said he believed broadcasters using public airwaves needed to do more to educate parents about use of V-chip technology to block shows with graphic sex and/or violence and vulgar language. Specifically, Markey said broadcasters should formulate public service announcements (PSAs) as part of that effort. Panel was put on by U. of Pa.’s Annenberg Public Policy Center at National Press Club in Washington.
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NAB wasn’t on panel, but spokesman, contacted later, said association on at least 2 occasions had fed via satellite to every station in nation PSAs explaining what V- chip did and how it worked. Former FCC Comr. Gloria Tristani participated in that effort, he said, and association never received invitation to appear on panel. Spokesman said NAB often encouraged its members to promote their educational programming. He also said it was important for FCC to adopt rules on multicasting that might allow stations to experiment with new channels, which could include those for children’s programming.
Both Abernathy and Markey said they were concerned about how DTV transition would affect children’s programming. Abernathy pointed out that in past, FCC had been concerned that local or network preemptions might thwart goals of Children’s TV Act of 1990, but said FCC policy of permitting limited preemptions might need to change if digital broadcasters eventually were allowed to multicast. While Act continues to require that every U.S. broadcaster provide minimum of 3 hours per week of educational and informational programming to children, govt. also limits amount of commercial advertising that can be targeted at children during that programming. Abernathy and Markey wondered how that might change if interactive TV would allow children to click on something on their TV set, only to receive more advertising as result.
Patti Miller, dir.-Children & Media Program for Children Now, said she was worried that increasing consolidation of media industry would only worsen what she saw as lack of children’s programming. Asked about rising tide of “repurposing” of children’s TV, such as NBC’s recent decision to supplant its own Sat. morning programming with that of Discovery Kids’ channel, Abernathy said she wasn’t terribly concerned about that since cable’s children’s programs were “head and shoulders in many respects” above broadcasters’. “What does concern me a lot as I look at the future of free over-the-air broadcasting is I do not want the continual quality driven down, driven down, driven down. I fear that that’s what we're seeing,” she said.
Panel discussion came after Annenberg researchers released new study on parents’ use of V-chip that found few families using technology or even aware of it. Among 110 families who were given V-chip-equipped TV sets by Annenberg, 30% used it during course of year. Of those, only 9 families (8%) had V-chip programmed and actively engaged when visited year later. It said 22% had tried out device but didn’t have it on when visited later. Of those who had tried it, 14 had programmed it successfully but chose to turn it off. Ten families said they tried to use it but couldn’t get it to work properly. Of total families, 77 (70%) said they never had used chip during year. Researchers concluded parents didn’t understand ratings system or V-chip and found it difficult to program, while others felt they don’t need chip to supervise their children’s TV consumption.
Kaiser Family Foundation Vp Vicky Rideout said research confirmed Kaiser’s findings that ratings system was confusing. For example, some parents thought FV rating meant “family viewing,” when it, in fact, means “fantasy violence,” Rideout said. Kaiser research also found that many parents didn’t even know they had V-chip technology in their sets, she said. Abernathy, Markey and others on panel said V-chip was only one tool that parents could use in filtering their children’s TV viewing. Abernathy said one of FCC’s goals in DTV transition was to ensure chip continued to work. “Closed V-chip technology, which is part of many analog television sets, is unable to identify any changes that may be made to the existing ratings system, whereas an open V-chip technology would allow television sets to recognize future modifications,” she said.
“Our responsibility is to keep pressure on the industries that are under our jurisdiction,” Markey said, and policymakers should “use our bully pulpit in order to pound it into the broadcasting and cable industries the ongoing responsibility which they have.” Asked later how much pressure she could put on broadcasters on children’s programming in context of media ownership rules, Abernathy said she thought it would “be incredibly difficult legally because we're always balancing First Amendment free speech rights… vs. what we can do for our children.” She cited legal case in 1970s in which court said FCC had overstepped its legal bounds in trying to use bully pulpit to pressure broadcasters on family-friendly TV. “In all industries that I work with, a lot of times, we work informally, off-line because we can get more done that way and faster sometimes than actually going through a regulatory proceeding,” she said.