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 Statement  of  Commissioner  Jonathan  S.  Adelstein  Before  the  Children  NOW  Digital  TV  Conference 
 June  9,  2004  Washington,  D.  C. 


 Thank  you,  Patti. 
 Think  about  it.  Parents  wouldnt  let  their  children  wander  by  themselves  through  a  neighborhood  they  dont  know.  But  many  parents  let  their  kids  do  just  that  with  their  minds 
 through  TV.  A  third  of  children  under  six  have  a  TV  in  their  bedroom.  And,  as  Children  NOW  reported,  by  the  first  grade,  most  children  will  have  spent  the  equivalent  of  three  school  years  in 
 front  of  the  TV. 
 Among  other  dangers,  it  turns  out  these  neighborhoods  are  filled  with  slick  storekeepers  trying  to  lure  kids  in  to  buy  candy,  junk  food  and  violent  games.  Not  every  street  is  Sesame 
 Street.  Clearly,  some  people  in  the  neighborhood  dont  have  your  kids  best  interests  in  mind. 
 The  FCCs  job  is  to  make  sure  TV  has  safe  places  for  children    and  that  parents  know  how  to  keep  their  kids  out  of  the  dangerous  places  --  and  out  of  candy  stores. 


 Parents,  be  warned:  the  cops  on  the  beat  arent  on  top  of  the  new  developments  in  the  neighborhood.  The  FCC  is  long  overdue  in  defining  the  public  interest  obligations  on 
 broadcasters  in  the  digital  age.  Just  this  morning,  Congress  held  another  hearing  on  how  to  complete  the  digital  transition    but  we  still  havent  figured  out  the  ground  rules  for  kids! 


 Most  parents  naturally  question  what  their  kids  are  watching.  There  are  some  great  programs  on  TV,  and  studies  show  that  true  educational  TV  can  help  young  childrens 
 development. 
 So  lets  make  sure  that  tomorrows  digital  television  has  more  safe  neighborhoods  to  wander  in.  Lets  insist  on  more  informative,  educational,  healthy  choices  for  our  children. 


 Broadcasters  are  the  landlords  of  the  television  landscape.  But  the  FCC  is  supposed  to  protect  the  public  against  the  natural  tendencies  of  corporations  to  seek  out  the  bottom-  line  above 
 all  else.  We  have  two  principal  ways  of  doing  that.  First,  we  have  protections  against  media  concentration,  but  most  of  them  were  gutted  last  summer.  Second,  we  have  public  interest 
 obligations. 
 Broadcasters  bargain  with  the  government  is  that  in  exchange  for  free  use  of  the  public  airwaves,  they  are  supposed  to  serve  the  public  interest.  They  are  supposed  to  be  good 
 neighbors.  To  this  day,  many  do  it  remarkably  well.  Many  take  pride  in  their  local  communities  and  their  stewardship  of  the  airwaves. 


 But  the  FCC  provides  very  little  assurance  that  all  broadcasters  will  do  so.  It  has  so  weakened  the  specific  public  interest  obligations  that  broadcasters  dont  have  much  left  to  prove. 
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 Its  time  to  restore  these  public  interest  obligations  for  the  new  era  of  interactive,  digital  TV. 
 Digital  TV  promises  to  enhance  the  TV  world  for  everyone,  including  children.  Broadcasters  can  turn  todays  single  analog  channel  into  5  or  6  channels.  This  makes  room  for 
 more  programs  to  educate,  inform,  and  inspire  our  nations  children.  And,  as  Senator  Brownback  said  this  morning,  datacasting  can  give  parents  real-  time  ratings  and  content 
 information  so  they  know  what  their  kids  are  getting    and  can  keep  them  out  of  the  candy  store  if  they  want. 


 Broadcasters  should  use  this  capability  to  expand  the  diversity  and  quality  of  programming.  They  should  use  this  opportunity  to  empower  parents. 
 Interactivity  can  be  both  a  positive  and  a  negative  for  our  children.  We  know  that  advertisers  will  exploit  the  opportunities  and  our  childrens  vulnerabilities.  But  it  also  offers 
 great  potential  to  further  learning  and  development.  Broadcasters  should  understand  the  social  responsibilities  that  come  with  interactivity  targeted  at  children.  And  we  on  the  FCC  need  to  get 
 the  right  protections  in  place  before  its  too  late. 
 I  firmly  believe  that  new  horizons  in  broadcasting  should  correspond  to  new  horizons  in  serving  the  public  interest.  So  we  at  the  FCC  must  do  our  part.  The  FCC  must  urgently  define 
 the  new  rules  for  the  digital  era,  and  that  includes  childrens  television. 
 Six  years  ago,  some  broadcasters  recognized  that  to  the  extent  that  multicasting  expands  broadcasting  opportunities,  the  public  interest  obligations  should  also  expand.  It  is  time  the  FCC 
 adopts  that  basic  principle.  We  cant  afford  to  wait  any  longer.  How  many  more  stations  will  begin  multicasting  before  they  understand  the  rules  of  the  road?  Were  spending  more  time 
 figuring  out  the  end  of  the  digital  television  transition  when  we  havent  even  completed  its  beginning. 


 We  started  a  proceeding  on  childrens  obligations  nearly  four  years  ago.  We  need  to  complete  it  right  away.  Many  issues  involving  childrens  TV  involve  the  complex  relationships 
 between  electronic  media  and  a  childs  cognitive,  social,  emotional  and  physical  development.  Much  more  research  needs  to  be  done  on  how  interactivity  affects  the  balance.  I  applaud 
 Senators  Brownback,  Lieberman  and  Clinton  for  their  legislation  to  do  that.  Compared  to  the  complexity  of  those  issues,  defining  public  interest  obligations  should  be  easy. 


 Many  organizations  here  today  came  together  through  the  Childrens  Media  Policy  Coalition  to  promote  two  alternative  approaches  to  help  meet  childrens  educational  needs.  They 
 said  broadcasters  should  dedicate  3  hours  per  week  on  main  channels,  with  additional  obligations  on  other  channels,  or  3  percent  of  broadcast  time,  to  educational  and  informational  programming. 
 The  Coalition  also  suggested  important  ways  to  avoid  excessive  commercialization  and  to  give  parents  tools  to  help  their  children  make  appropriate  viewing  choices.  The  Benton  Foundation 
 found  that  the  vast  bulk  of  Americans  agree.  So,  with  that  strong  support,  its  hard  to  understand  why  is  this  still  lingering  at  the  FCC. 
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 With  some  hard  work,  I'm  confident  we  can  provide  more  safe  places  for  our  children  to  experience  on  TV. 
 It's  about  time  we  started.  We  cant  let  our  children  venture  into  an  unknown,  unprotected  digital  media  environment    all  because  the  FCC  didnt  do  its  job. 
 I  want  to  thank  Children  NOW,  as  well  as  the  American  Academy  of  Pediatrics  and  the  American  Psychological  Association,  for  convening  this  excellent  forum  and  taking  the  lead  on 
 this  critical  issue. 
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