Untangling the Web of Internet Video
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Untangling the Web of Internet Video Questions, Answers, and a Report Card for Parents A Parents Television Council Special Report November 15, 2010 A Wake-Up Call to Parents The future of television is already here. You probably just don’t know it yet. In the mid-1990s I was working at NBC’s corporate headquarters in New York City, helping to create “new media” business opportunities for the “Peacock” television network. In a poignant observation my boss noted that “interactive television has been two or three years away for the past ten years.” A humorous quip for the time; but times have clearly changed. The future of television is here. By now, most of us have watched a video delivered via the Internet. The content might be as simple as a dog riding on a skateboard, or an unpretentious Scottish operatic singer bursting onto the world stage. Imagine watching those Internet videos from the convenience of your TV screen. The advent of new entertainment media technology like Google TV and Apple TV, among others, means these technologies aren’t two or three years away; they are here right now. And they are providing the platform to deliver all manner of media content into our homes. That’s not to say that TV will cease to exist in its traditional form. It’s just that the line between TV and the Internet is rapidly blurring; and with it comes new and unfettered pathways for children to access inappropriate media content ranging from profanities to the most graphic depictions of adult entertainment the mind can conceive. These new platforms bring the potential to render existing parental control devices, like TV content ratings and the V-Chip, wholly ineffective and perhaps even obsolete. That’s why every parent must learn about – and must care about – online video policies and practices. We urge them to do so today. And we hope this report is a helpful resource. Tim Winter, President, Parents Television Council 2 A Parents Television Council Special Report November 15, 2010 This report was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Mathile Family Foundation William E. Simon Foundation Stuart Family Foundation and Michele and Donald D’Amour 3 A Parents Television Council Special Report November 15, 2010 Executive Summary This study focuses on policies and practices that would help to prevent online video providers from exposing children to graphic, explicit and potentially harmful adult content. The Parents Television Council (PTC) examined four of the most popular online distributors of commercially-generated content: Hulu (NBC/Universal, Fox and Disney/ABC), Fancast (Comcast), /Slashcontrol (AOL) and AT&T on several key criteria relative to responsible online programming. Our study methodology targeted four areas of concern: 1) content ratings; 2) homepage content decency; 3) advertiser accountability; and 4) parental controls. Data collection consisted of analysts creating an account in order to log-in as an account holder for each online provider and registering as a 13-year-old child. Each homepage was viewed at various times twice per week over a period of three weeks. During this three-week period, analysts viewed a total of 602 videos. Findings from this study represent the amount and level of content available to any unsuspecting 13-year-old child. In summary, the study revealed: 1) Providers and their partnering networks are using different and more lenient content rating procedures and standards (TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA, etc.) for online videos compared to their standards and procedures for shows airing on broadcast networks; 2) Online providers are entirely omitting the use of the D, L, S and V content descriptors, thereby rendering parental blocking mechanisms inadequate; 3) Even if a child identifies themselves as underage using online log-in procedures, they are still exposed to volumes of extreme content; 4) Existing child safety online features do not effectively block offensive content even from children who use every available procedure to avoid the material; and 5) Advertisers should adopt better practices to avoid marketing adult products to children. Our goal is to help every parent understand the vital role they play as a child’s best defense against being exposed to inappropriate and graphic content. Specific findings are discussed in the body of this report. 4 A Parents Television Council Special Report November 15, 2010 Untangling the Web of Internet Video: Questions, Answers, and a Report Card for Parents Introduction A Report Card on the Accountability of Providers to Children Today, children are consuming more and more of their video entertainment ABC AOL outside the traditional confines of a Fox Comcast NBC television set. Home video products, services and digital technologies such as Content Rating D F F F the Internet, smart phones, DVDs, iPods, iPads, video games, cable/satellite pay- Advertiser C C D B per-view, and time-shifting technologies Accountability like TiVo offer an abundance of opportunity to make program content Parental Controls D D D F more accessible; but they also bring an abundance of risk for parents. Overall Grade D D- D- F The recent release of new technologies like Google TV and Apple TV, pre- A traditional school based grading system (e.g. 90-100 = A, 80-89 = B, etc.) was used in installed on consumer hardware or calculating the above referenced report card grades. Specifically we calculated: 1) the otherwise, are bringing Internet content to percentage of videos containing content ratings; 2) percentage of homepages containing television sets across America. This means advertisements for adult products within or adjacent to video content deemed family- friendly or rated TV-PG or below; and 3) percentages based on whether parental controls the challenges and dangers parents are so were offered and the accessibility of those controls. frequently warned about regarding Internet content are rapidly become issues for the household TV. The world of online video and its practices will eventually become part of the standard television landscape. TV will not stop being TV as we have known it. However, the breadth of the Internet, the range of adult and explicit content, and the ability to switch between a broadcast network and an online provider, to find the program you want to watch, will blur the lines between the two, potentially rendering obsolete the existing parental control options like TV content ratings and the V-chip. In this vast world of multi-platform technology and with media usage rates increasing, it has become even more imperative that both professionals and parents understand the type and quantity of content that children can easily consume via today’s top online services. Five years ago, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that young people spent an average of nearly 6½ hours (6:21) per day with media—incorporating more than 8½ hours (8:33) of media content into that time by multitasking. Today, media consumption rates have increased by an hour and seventeen minutes daily, from 6:21 to 7:38—almost the equivalent of an adult work day and longer than a traditional school day. And while an adult’s work day and a child’s school day are five days per week, children are consuming their media seven days per week. 5 A Parents Television Council Special Report November 15, 2010 The popularity of new media platforms for consuming TV content has resulted in an increase of 38 minutes of daily TV consumption. The increase includes an average of 24 minutes per day watching TV or movies on the Internet, and approximately 15 minutes each watching on cell phones and iPods. These study results demonstrate, even in this age of multi-platform technologies, that television viewing—in one form or another—continues to dominate media consumption among today’s youth. Realizing this fact, the Parents Television Council (PTC) has conducted the most comprehensive study to date examining online videos offered by the top providers – names most American families have grown to trust: AOL, AT&T, Comcast, NBC/Universal, News Corp/Fox, and Walt Disney/ABC. Our over-arching goal for this report was to answer the following question: “How safe are your children from explicit content when using these sites to view videos online?" The answer is: “Not very.” Our findings are disturbing. This study should serve as a wake-up call for any parent concerned about their child's access to graphic or indecent material. In addition to greater parental involvement with the media consumption choices of their children, we also call upon these online video service providers – each of which is a corporate behemoth – to immediately adopt and implement more effective age-appropriate content gating procedures. Purpose of the Study and Methodology The purpose of this study is to answer questions every family household needs to know by examining online video providers’ policies and practices that would prevent exposing children to graphic, explicit and potentially harmful adult content. Our questions and answers serve to evaluate whether the various online video providers are exercising high levels of corporate responsibility relative to four areas of specific concern: 1) content ratings; 2) homepage content decency; 3) advertiser accountability; and 4) parental controls. The study provides an inside look at four of the most popular online distributors of commercially-generated content: Hulu (NBC/Universal, Fox and Disney/ABC), Fancast (Comcast), /Slashcontrol (AOL) and AT & T. These online video providers were selected based on the following criteria: 1) They were aggregate providers of commercially-supported streaming video; 2) the criteria excluded providers that displayed their own content exclusively (e. g. Nickelodeon, etc.); 3) the criteria excluded sites that primarily displayed “user-generated” content (e. g. YouTube); and 4) the criteria excluded sites that did not offer full-length episodes of broadcast programming.