Skip to main content

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.
Jump To:
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.
Closed – Implemented
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.
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.
Closed – Implemented
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 that it adheres to FCC's definition but there were no broadly accepted industry standards for educational programming that broadcasters can use. Without standards, broadcasters cannot be sure that their programming is educational and informational under the act. Therefore, GAO recommended that FCC 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 better ensure that core children's programming meets the educational and informational needs of children. In 2015, GAO confirmed that FCC took several steps to implement GAO's recommendation by collaborating with the broadcast industry. First, FCC representatives collaborated with broadcasters through National Association of Broadcasters' panel discussions that include discussions about CTA programming. Second, the FCC official overseeing CTV compliance said she held informal discussions about children's programming with content producers, such as a production company that provides educational programming for ABC, CBS, and CW, representing 3 of the 5 largest broadcast networks. Third, FCC formally clarified its definition of core children's programming, stating that "there can be no reasonable question raised" as to whether the programming aired by a broadcaster is educational. FCC officials said that this level of collaboration is appropriate based on the low level of complaints FCC has received about core programming. The steps FCC has taken meet the spirit of GAO's recommendation thorough the Commissions discussions with the broadcast industry to address concerns regarding the content of children's programming. As a result, FCC has taken the first real steps towards developing volunteer guidelines, which will make it easier for parents and broadcaster to evaluate the education and informational content of core children's programming.
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.
Closed – Not Implemented
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

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Broadcasting standardsCable televisionChildrenCommercial televisionEducational televisionGovernment information disseminationSatellite televisionTelevisionTelevision advertisingTelevision broadcastingParentsEducation program evaluationInformation sharing