Children and Media

With too many students in too many places falling into the homework gap, we need to upgrade the E-Rate program by extending the school classroom to the school bus. This would ensure that school districts are reimbursed by the program when they add this technology to their transportation. To drive this change, proposals have been introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives. They deserve serious consideration.

An explosion of new digital options for kids' entertainment has pulled children's attention away from live TV to instant, on-demand programming, bringing with it new challenges for producers, policymakers and parents. TV networks are trying to modernize in order to keep up with kids' viewing habits. And a recent Federal Communications Commission proposal would relax kids' TV rules to let traditional broadcasters compete with digital channels, like Netflix, Amazon or YouTube, that do not have to follow those rules.

A school district in South Carolina has done away with the much-loved snow days — requiring students to do classwork online. Officials with Anderson County School District 5 announced that the district has been chosen to “pilot the first eLearning program in the state of South Carolina,” meaning that when roads are too treacherous for travel, teachers will send assignments to the students’ school-supplied Chromebooks. The district calendar states that “inclement weather days will be eLearning days and will not be made up.”

An update to Twitter’s terms of service that was made months ago due to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is still locking users out of the platform for being underage — even though some are in their mid-20s.

The Federal Communications Commission has begun the process of loosening requirements for children's TV programming, arguing that the old rules aren't needed in the era of kids-focused apps and streaming services.  When it comes to kids' content, tech companies like Netflix, Amazon and Google have stolen huge market share from traditional media companies. Still, children's advocates say relaxing the rules for broadcasters may make it harder for families without reliable broadband access to find age-appropriate content. 

The Federal Communications Commission launched a proceeding to seek comment on proposed revisions to the children’s television programming rules. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking recommends modifying rules adopted in 1996 pursuant to the Children’s Television Act. The NPRM seeks input on proposed changes to the criteria that children’s programming must meet to be considered Core Programming, which among other things currently require that programming be at least 30 minutes in length and regularly scheduled.

As teachers increasingly integrate internet-based programs into both lesson plans and homework, the internet has become an essential tool for students. With such vast amounts of information available online—articles, videos, other imaginative mediums—children are able to do homework and develop interests not only with the help of, but also because of an internet connection. But while that tool can—and does—bring so much opportunity to students whose families can afford it, millions of American families are unable to buy internet at home.

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) hosted a press conference July 11 to call for the Federal Communications Commission to convert its children's television notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) into a notice of inquiry (NOI) so it can collect more data on the impact of its proposals. He was joined by Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and other children's TV advocates.