Viacom’s Nickelodeon is leading an intimidation campaign to prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from setting up safeguards intended to protect children under age 12 from the excesses of TV and online marketing, the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) charges.
In a Sept. 26, 2005 FCC filing, Nick, along with Disney/ABC and GE/NBC/Telemundo "basically claimed that serving the educational and developmental needs of children in the digital TV age violated their `First Amendment’ rights, the CDD reports.
"It’s clear that for Nick, surrounding kids in an interactive advertising environment so they can be pitched ads from Burger King, Pringles, and Hershey Candy is more important to them than rules designed to protect children."
The group blasts the networks:
"Viacom’s Nick and Disney should be ashamed of their effort to scuttle the FCC’s new children’s protections. But they have no shame–only mega-dollars in their eyes as our kids get fat from fast food and spend tons of money on their `branded’ products."
Read this provocative, insightful story, which I found, thanks to MediaChannel.org.
While my initial reaction was disbelief that Nick and others would fight the new FCC’s children’s rules, I shouldn’t be surprised.
The sad reality is that TV companies — even ones that purport to have the needs of our nation’s children at heart — are reliant on advertisers, who often are, of course, companies peddling junk food.