Rethinking the Children's Television Act for a Digital
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S. HRG. 111–485 RETHINKING THE CHILDREN’S TELEVISION ACT FOR A DIGITAL MEDIA AGE HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JULY 22, 2009 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 56–408 PDF WASHINGTON : 2010 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:17 Jun 29, 2010 Jkt 056408 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\56408.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas, Ranking JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BARBARA BOXER, California JIM DEMINT, South Carolina BILL NELSON, Florida JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia MARK PRYOR, Arkansas DAVID VITTER, Louisiana CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota MEL MARTINEZ, Florida TOM UDALL, New Mexico MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska MARK WARNER, Virginia MARK BEGICH, Alaska ELLEN L. DONESKI, Chief of Staff JAMES REID, Deputy Chief of Staff BRUCE H. ANDREWS, General Counsel CHRISTINE D. KURTH, Republican Staff Director and General Counsel BRIAN M. HENDRICKS, Republican Chief Counsel (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:17 Jun 29, 2010 Jkt 056408 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\56408.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on July 22, 2009 ............................................................................... 1 Statement of Senator Rockefeller ........................................................................... 1 Statement of Senator Pryor .................................................................................... 3 Statement of Senator Begich .................................................................................. 65 Statement of Senator Nelson .................................................................................. 67 Statement of Senator Klobuchar ............................................................................ 70 WITNESSES Hon. Julius Genachowski, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission ... 4 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 6 Gary E. Knell, President and CEO, Sesame Workshop ....................................... 18 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 19 Professor Sandra L. Calvert, Professor of Psychology and Director, Children’s Digital Media Center, Department of Psychology, Georgetown University .... 22 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 24 John Lawson, Executive Vice President, ION Media Networks, Inc. on Behalf of The National Association of Broadcasters ..................................................... 26 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 29 Cyma Zarghami, President, Nickelodeon and the MTV Networks Kids and Family Group ....................................................................................................... 42 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 44 James P. Steyer, CEO and Founder, Common Sense Media ............................... 55 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 57 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:17 Jun 29, 2010 Jkt 056408 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\56408.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:17 Jun 29, 2010 Jkt 056408 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\56408.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE RETHINKING THE CHILDREN’S TELEVISION ACT FOR A DIGITAL MEDIA AGE WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2009 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m. in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. John D. Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, U.S. SENATOR FROM WEST VIRGINIA The CHAIRMAN. This hearing will come to order. And we will have some of our members coming. We just im- peached a judge—— [Laughter.] The CHAIRMAN.—so some may be emotionally upset, and they’ll be a little bit slow getting here, but they will be here. Let me make my opening statement. The Ranking Member, Kay Bailey Hutchison, is not here today, so if nobody else comes we’ll go right to you, Mr. Genachowski, and then we’ll see what happens from there. We’ve got lots of questions—— Mr. GENACHOWSKI. Great. The CHAIRMAN.—and then we have another panel, terrific panel, behind that. My approach to this, frankly, is not to start out controversially. I did that last year, because I am so put off by the whole concept of promiscuity and lasciviousness and all these things. And I’m, you know, a father and a grandfather of five and nine-tenths chil- dren. I care about that. And I’ve found out that this is very much of a First Amendment committee, and so we have to work carefully, but I am determined that we will eventually get to this. Now I want to talk just basically about the Commission. And the Committee will talk about the Committee, I guess, in other ses- sions. But, be at ease. I am absolutely delighted to see you. Every—and I explain to people that just the very fact that you’ve been appointed is a testament to the President and his interest in the best people—like John Holdren, who you know. John Holdren was ready to retire, but he just couldn’t stay away from the oppor- tunity to do the Office of Science and Technology, and so here he is—science policy, et cetera—OSTP. So, television obviously is a very, very powerful force in chil- dren’s lives. Children in America typically watch between 2 and 4 hours of television every day. I try to not think of that just in (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:17 Jun 29, 2010 Jkt 056408 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\56408.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE 2 terms of my home, but homes where parents are both working, and the stress is on them, and whether to be sympathetic or not, and you sort of have to be, but then you have to think of the technology of, How do you handle all of this? And this is what I want to get into a bit today. Stunningly, by the time they reach first grade—it has been a long time since I was in first grade, but I think that’s—what, 7 or 8 years old? That sound about right? VOICE. Six. The CHAIRMAN. Six. That sounds better. All right. [Laughter.] The CHAIRMAN. They have—well, that’s more dramatic. They have spent what amounts to 3 school years in front of the tele- vision set by the time they’re 6 years old. Three school years. And I have a hard time really even getting past that thought. Now, let me be clear. When used for good, television program- ming can enlighten, entertain, and, indeed, teach. That can come from television itself, it can come from, you know, classic DVDs that go back and review history—the History Channel. I mean, there are so many ways that we can really be fundamentally en- lightened by what comes across our screen, which is now, of course, much more than just our screen. But, when used for less noble pur- poses, it can expose children to indecent, graphic, frightening scenes, which children, in the manner of not just children, but all people, never really get over. I think this has had a coarsening ef- fect on our children. I think it has had a coarsening effect on our society. I regret that. I wish I could do something about that, and it may be that, together, we can. I think we have a right to be concerned, in other words. This is why, 20 years ago, Congress enacted the Children’s Television Act. Now, 20 years ago is a long time. This law, back then, reduced the commercialization of children’s programming, which was great. Less time on advertising, more time on programming. It also cre- ated a market for more quality—I hate the word, but I’ll use it— educational, informational programming for our youngest viewers. Very, very important. So, these are the good things, these are the policies we still want to promote, these are the values that we hold dearly to, today. This is what we look to in our children as they grow up, that they will be a new generation of leaders, with a set of values that matches what is required. But, our media landscape has changed so dramatically during the last two decades. I mean, it’s just like a blink of an eye, and it’s a whole different world. So, we have a challenge. How do we take these values, and how do we apply them to a very different media universe that we’re faced with today—and, particularly, our children are faced with today, and have mastered, and are part of, they’re already comfortable with it, a world where television sets are only a part of the media mix, a world where a television screen is fast fusing with the computer screen, where cable channels have multiplied and young people view programs over their mobile phones? It’s hard for me to imagine, but I know it’s true, to see my son and his new wife reading The New York Times on an iPhone, on a Sunday morning. VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:17 Jun 29, 2010 Jkt 056408 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\56408.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE 3 Now, I’m suspicious of that. I want the paper in my hand, be- cause I have this weird feeling that the iPhone is leaving out some of the context, that certainly all you get is what you have right in front of you. You can’t skip back to some other page. So, the way I see it, there are two needs here.