Children and Media

[Speech} You are a force for optimism—and I want to harness your energies this morning to help solve what I call the Homework Gap. After I talk about that, I’ll follow up with a few thoughts about other matters of interest before the Federal Communications Commission. Shool-aged kids without
broadband access at home are not only unable to complete their homework, they enter the job market with a serious handicap. I have some ideas—and that’s where you come in. 

Microsoft is looking to turn school buses into Internet-enabled hotspots in an experiment that’s aimed at helping students in rural Michigan do their homework. The company wants to use empty TV airwaves to beam high-speed Internet signals to buses in Hillman (MI) as they travel to and from school, according to regulatory filings submitted Wednesday to the Federal Communications Commission. “The proposed deployment would help … by providing high-speed wireless Internet access on school buses as they complete their morning and afternoon routes,” the filing reads.

Republican lawmakers and conservative media critics pressed President Donald Trump to explore new restrictions on the video-game industry, arguing that violent games might have contributed to mass shootings like the recent attack at a high school in Parkland (FL). In a private meeting at the White House, also attended by several video-game executives, some participants urged President Trump to consider new regulations that would make it harder for children to purchase those games. Others asked the president to expand his inquiry to focus on violent movies and TV shows too.

The White House has scheduled a meeting with the video game industry's Entertainment Software Association March 8 to talk about video game and real world violence, but the Parents Television Council wants to expand the conversation to include broadcast network TV.  “As the White House and other leaders work to confront societal gun violence, we hope that they will demand meaningful change from the entertainment industry, which presents dress rehearsals for gun violence on TV, in the movies, and in violent video games,” said PTC President Tim Winter.

[Commentary] Two-hundred forty-five days. School districts are waiting this long for the Federal Communications Commission to make decisions on the fate of funding to bring fiber connectivity to their classrooms. That’s 65 days longer than the average school year. And for Woodman School in rural Montana, it means another school year that students must be bused to a neighboring district for assessments because high-speed internet access is not an option. No school should have to wait that long to provide basic educational opportunity for its students.

A federal program intended to help school districts attain better access to the internet is under fire. Advocates for connectivity say the Federal Communications Commission is leaving many rural districts in limbo with long delays and denials. Most of the concerns surround applications for federal aid to connect rural schools to fiber optic networks through the E-rate program. “Red tape and bureaucracy… are causing huge delays in getting their projects reviewed,” said Evan Marwell, CEO of EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit that has long advocated for school connectivity.

A recent Mobile Beacon report analyzing mobile broadband usage by non-profit organizations, including schools, finds that schools utilizing Mobile Beacon’s 4G LTE internet service indicate that the ability to supplement and/or extend existing school networks is the greatest benefit of the service. While schools reported that the two main drivers for acquiring Mobile Beacon’s mobile broadband services are the desire for mobile connectivity (41%) and to save money on internet access (28%), they reported that the main benefits of using the services were 1) the ability to supplement/extend an e

President Donald Trump warned about the influence of violence in movies while discussing school safety and mass shootings, suggesting it could be a contributing factor to recent mass shootings.  "We have to look at the internet, because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed, and we have to do something about maybe what they're seeing and how they're seeing it. And also video games," President Trump said. "I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has asked me to lead the agency’s review of the stringent requirements the FCC imposes on our nation’s broadcasters to air a certain amount of educational and informational children’s programming on a weekly basis, otherwise known as Kid Vid. I am pleased to accept his request. The Commission is currently undergoing a comprehensive proceeding to modernize our media regulations, and Kid Vid is due for such an examination within the bounds of the law.