Children and TV

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Government censors will finally be implementing a “TV violence rating code” to get television networks to tone down graphic scenes of sex and violence in the news and other programs, while setting aside 15 percent of airtime for “child-friendly” programming. After 15 years, the Department of Education National Council for Children's Television and the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board released the implementing rules and regulations of the Children's Television Act that was enacted in 1997.

The children's TV law would set a “TV violence rating code” in coordination with the MTRCB. Under this clause, the NCCT “shall prescribe an appropriate set of criteria for evaluating programs that take into consideration the sensibilities of children,” in order to establish a rating system for content that includes sex, violence and other abuses on children. The law also encourages TV networks to produce quality programs that “in addition to being entertaining, should allow children to develop physically, mentally and socially to their fullest potential.”

Education Secretary Armin Luistro, who led the launch, said that with the implementing rules and regulations, the controversial child viewing safety law will finally be enforced. For him, the key is that during the times when children are known to be watching, programming will be regulated in terms of language and themes.

With today's children spending more and more time in front of the TV, the enforcement of the Children's Television Act is long overdue. The lack of implementing rules and regulations means that children have been routinely exposed to adult themes, sex and violence during primetime programming. It has also led to the suffering quality and quantity of child-friendly programs over the past decade.

With proper guidance and regulation from the government, the television set does not have to be called the “idiot box” or the “boob tube” anymore. Everybody, and not just children, can benefit from smarter and less offensive television programming, and it is about time the government took a more active role in ensuring that TV time isn't such a waste of time anymore.*