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 Separate  Statement  of  Commissioner  Jonathan  S.  Adelstein 
 Re:  Childrens  Television  Obligations  of  Digital  Television  Broadcasters,  Report  and  Order,  Docket  No.  00-  167 

 Quality  educational  and  informational  television  can  enlighten  our  children,  feed  their  curiosity,  and  teach  fundamental  skills,  ethics  and  behaviors  for  our  society.  I  thank 
 the  Chairman  and  my  colleagues  for  their  commitment  to  this  exceptionally  valuable  proceeding. 

 Today  weve  taken  serious  steps  to  update  our  rules  and  policies  to  protect  children.  We  provide  certainty  for  broadcasters  to  know  how  their  obligation  to  serve  the 
 child  audience  translates  in  the  digital  world.  We  offer  parents  more  and  better  information  to  help  their  children  make  appropriate  viewing  choices.  And  we  recognize 
 that  new  technologies  can  lead  to  previously  unimagined  enriching  educational  experiences,  while  we  take  care  to  prevent  potential  new  harms. 

 Congress  has  affirmed  the  need  for  broadcasters  to  protect  and  serve  children.  Broadcasters  must  provide  programming  specifically  designed  to  serve  the  particular 
 needs  of  children,  which  is  examined  during  license  renewals.  Like  other  providers  of  programming  aimed  at  young  children,  they  also  must  protect  children  from  excessive 
 commercialization.  In  enacting  the  legislation,  the  House  Report  clearly  states  that  the  presence  of  cable  and  VCRs  does  not  obviate  the  public  interest  responsibility  of 
 individual  broadcast  licensees  to  serve  the  child  audience,  and  that  total  reliance  on  marketplace  forces  is  neither  sufficient  nor  justified  to  protect  children  from  potential 
 exploitation  by  advertising  or  commercial  practices.  1 
 These  same  principles  must  be  reinforced  not  just  in  todays  television  environment  but  for  the  onset  of  digital  television  and  tomorrows  launch  into  interactive 
 television.  In  all  its  forms,  television  continues  to  play  an  influential  role  in  a  childs  life.  Nearly  all  children  watch  television  before  their  first  exposure  to  formal  education. 
 Children  watch  on  average  three  hours  of  television  per  day,  and  more  than  half  of  all  children  have  a  television  in  their  bedroom.  Without  appropriate  safeguards,  we  run  the 
 risk  that  our  children  become  captive  to  increasingly  invasive  advertising.  Most  broadcasters  today  steadfastly  serve  their  child  audience.  Our  policies  are  designed  to 
 ensure  that  all  broadcasters  will. 
 Digital  television  offers  vast  educational  potential.  It  provides  an  opportunity  for  broadcasters  to  nurture  the  emotional,  cognitive,  behavioral  and  other  needs  of  children 
 through  more  and  better  educational  and  informational  programming.  As  broadcasters  choose  to  multicast,  for  example,  their  expanded  capacity  can  be  used  proportionately  to 
 further  the  needs  of  their  young  viewers.  Indeed,  we  give  broadcasters  the  flexibility  to  outdo  one  another  in  how  they  bring  this  programming  to  children  using  their  multiple 
 programming  streams. 

 1  Childrens  Television  Act  of  1990,  H.  R.  Rep.  101-  385  at  6  (1989). 
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 There  is  much  more  work  to  do  to  provide  broadcasters  and  the  public  with  certainty  regarding  the  entirety  of  their  public  interest  obligations  in  the  digital  era.  I 
 welcome  what  I  expect  will  be  an  equally  constructive  dialogue  on  resolving  how  the  remaining  public  interest  obligations  translate  to  digital.  The  high  level  of  cooperation  in 
 this  proceeding  bodes  well  for  also  achieving  consensus  on  the  broader  public  interest  examination  in  the  weeks  to  come. 

 While  this  is  merely  the  start,  our  children  are  our  future  and  Im  delighted  we  stepped  up  to  protect  them.  Our  children  should  be  the  ones  exploiting  the  potential  of 
 digital  television,  and  not  the  other  way  around. 
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