Monday, April 20, 2009

Children's Shows Rules and Regulations

I never realized how strict networks have to be about airing children's television shows until a speaker from the FCC, Federal Communications Commission, came and talked to my Television Stations Management class last week. He informed us about all of the rules and regulations that networks have to follow in order to keep themselves out of trouble. Some of the rules that they have to follow is that they can not have that many minutes of breaks and have to have bumpers before the show comes back on saying, now back to the show. They also can not have a character from the show selling a product in a commercial because the kids will not know how do distinguish between the show they are watching and a commercial. Finally, they can not have an Internet website in a commercial because it encourages the kids to go on to the Internet when their parents may not be around.

Thinking back to when I was little watching the shows on the Disney Channel I would always remember them announcing to their young audience “now back to the show” and we would all come running back into the room. Too bad they do not do that today, but I guess the invention of the DVR has replaced the need for networks to announce this to the audience. The need to keep kids so protective from the media has increased through out the years as more and more ways of accessing media related products has become available to little kids.

If the networks do not follow the rules of the FCC there are many fines that they will be faces with that do not seem to be worth the money. These little kids are so impressionable that any little thing that could confuse their perception of something they are watching on TV can jeopardize their network.

No comments:

Post a Comment