Children's Television Act: FCC Could Improve Efforts to Oversee Enforcement and Provide Public Information
GAO-11-659
Published: Jul 14, 2011. Publicly Released: Jul 14, 2011.
Skip to Highlights
Highlights
The Children's Television Act of 1990 (CTA) and related Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules restrict advertising during children's programs, whether aired by broadcast stations, cable operators, or satellite providers, and encourage broadcasters to air at least 3 hours per week of educational and informational programming for children (known as "core children's programming"). Broadcasters that certify in their license renewal application that they aired the minimum amount of core children's programming are eligible for expedited review. As requested, this report discusses (1) trends in children's programming, (2) FCC efforts to enforce the act, and (3) the extent to which parents value and use core children's programming. GAO analyzed FCC data, interviewed FCC and broadcast station officials, and conducted focus groups with parents.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Communications Commission | To help ensure that children more fully benefit from the Children's Television Act of 1990, and to improve enforcement of the act and the related rules, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission should develop and implement a strategy for overseeing cable operators' and satellite providers' compliance with the required advertising limits. | Under the Children's Television Act of 1990 (CTA) and subsequent regulations, broadcast television stations, cable operators, and satellite providers are required to limit the time and content of advertising shown during programming intended for children 12 years old and younger. In 2011, GAO reported that FCC relies on broadcasters to self-report violations but lacks a corresponding oversight approach for cable operators and satellite providers. FCC's reliance on broadcasters to self-report violations of CTA when they renew their operating licenses has resulted in about 7,000 violations of the advertising or public file rules resulting in fines of almost $3 million. During the licensed... period, FCC also oversees compliance with the act through its investigations of consumer complaints and reviews of some quarterly filings made by broadcasters. However, FCC has no comparable self-reporting enforcement approach to oversee cable operators' or satellite providers' compliance with these same advertising limits. Instead, FCC's oversight efforts have identified only seven violations by cable and satellite providers even though they televise much more children's programming than broadcasters. Without effective oversight of cable and satellite providers, FCC cannot ensure that those providers are complying with the act, potentially exposing children to excess or inappropriate advertising that the act and FCC rules seek to minimize and leading to unbalanced enforcement. GAO recommended that FCC develop and implement a strategy for overseeing cable operators' and satellite providers' compliance with the required advertising limits. In response, FCC indicated that it had plans to conduct oversight of cable operators' and satellite providers' compliance with advertising rules on a consistent basis. In 2015, GAO confirmed that FCC conducted a review of cable operators and satellite providers but FCC found no violations of the CTA advertising limits. FCC also issued a public notice, reminding cable operators and satellite providers of their obligations associated with the transmission of children's programming. Based on the lack of identified violations from this and a previous, similar audit, FCC decided not to conduct annual audits but is aware of the importance of periodic monitoring. This risk-based strategy increases FCC's assurance that all programming providers are complying with the children's advertising requirements and that enforcement is not unbalanced.
View More |
| Federal Communications Commission | To help ensure that children more fully benefit from the Children's Television Act of 1990, and to better ensure that core children's programming meets the educational and informational needs of children, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission should collaborate with the media industry to explore the potential for voluntary guidelines or standards to be used in creating and assessing core children's programming. | To increase children's access to educational television programming, the Children's Television Act of 1990 (CTA) and related Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules encourage broadcasters to air at least 3 hours per week of educational and informational programming for children (known as "core children's programming"). In 2011, GAO reported on concerns about the quality and educational value of some core children's programming. FCC rules define core children's programming but officials told GAO that this definition is intentionally broadly written so as not to dictate specific programming content. Broadcasters are responsible for selecting core children's programming and certifying...
|
| Federal Communications Commission | To help ensure that children more fully benefit from the Children's Television Act of 1990, and to better inform parents about core children's programming and how it is designated as such, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission should coordinate with broadcasters, associations, parents, and other stakeholders to (1) identify additional mechanisms--such as the recently launched 'Parents' Place' Web site--for educating the public about core children's programming on commercial broadcast television stations and assisting parents in making well-informed decisions about their use of core children's programming; (2) implement these mechanisms; and (3) measure and assess the effectiveness of these mechanisms. |
In providing comments on GAO's report, FCC generally concurred with this recommendation but has not taken any of the actions necessary to implement it. Therefore, GAO is closing the recommendation as not implemented.
|
Full Report
Public Inquiries
Topics
Broadcasting standardsCable televisionChildrenCommercial televisionEducational televisionGovernment information disseminationSatellite televisionTelevisionTelevision advertisingTelevision broadcastingParentsEducation program evaluationInformation sharing