From: To: A16.A16(kidstv) Date: 10/16/95 6:41pm Subject: children and tv Dear members of the FCC, According to Newton Minnow and Craig Lamay, authors of Abandoned in the Wasteland, by the time most people reach the age of eighteen, they have spent more time in front of a television than in the classroom. The difference is far greater in contrast to time spent talking to their parents, teachers and friends. It is evident tht providing a better television environment for our children should be a great priority to the Federal Communications Committee. The deterioration of the family that has occured in the United States has contributed to the need for quality programming for children. At one time in America watching television was a family event in which the entire family watched together. David Westin, ABC network president, agrees stating that in the past most families owned one television and so majority ruled what was seen. He continues saying today households own two or three television sets and children are going in one room and adults into another to watch television. Parents are failing to monitor what their children view and so, children are being exposed to numerous acts of violence and sex. With this breakdown of the familiy, the government should take some initiative and do something to improve the situation. Daniel Anderson, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, claims the "For children, television is a window to the world. Parents should control, limit, regulate television as much as they control, limit and regulate other things the child does." Parental control of what a child watches on television is ideal, yet overly optimistic. Not only do parents no longer sit and watch television with their kids, but often times there is only one parent present. The makeup of families has changed over the years. Divorce is more prominent in today's society and more and more children are being born out of wedlock. Even if a single parents wanted to monitor what his or her child watched, it would be very unlikely that the parent would have the time; therefore, it is vital that networks increase the amount of quality television for children aired. Programmers must begin to realize that we can't change the structure of families, but we can change the structure of television. "It just has to do with conventional wisdom that unless somebody makes us, it isn't in our economic interest to do educational programming for kids," notes David Britt, president of the Children's Television Workshop. Networks need to be forced into producing more child oriented programming. The FCC should place regulations on networks that they must air a certain amount of educational and informational television for children. There have been efforts to alter the Children's Television Act of 1990 that would provide this increase in children's programming. One proposal would have made it necessary for networks to air at least three hours of children's television a week. Three hours a week, however, is a pathetic attempt to tranform the structure of television for kids. It should be three hours of programming a day. The only way kids are going to start watching better programming is if they are bombarded with numerous options. A study conducted by Aletha Huston and John Wright, co-directors of the University of Kansas Research on the Influences of Television, found that in low income areas of Kansas City, children who watched Sesame Street regularly performed significantly better on standard math and verbal tests than children who watched adult television and cartooms. There have been numerous other studies with similar results. It is so obvious that increasing the amount of children's telvision would only be benenficial, so why isn't someone doing something about it? Sincerely, Kate Holcomb CC: FCCMAIL.SMTP("mailserv@liber.thaca.edu")