Children's Educational Television

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has strict guidelines about children's programming and advertisement. Recent studies have shown that children in the United States watch about three hours of television daily. This means that the cable networks could very easily take advantage of young children for advertising purposes if they are not regulated. The FCC regulates and protects children from being taken advantage of. Congress has determined that broadcast networks must offer educational and informational children's programming with limited commercials and advertisement. 
In 1990, Congress enacted the Children's Television Act to increase the amount of educational programming for children. This act brings the attention of core programming to the networks. Core programming was made to serve children aged sixteen and under to help them with their cognitive and emotional needs. The goal of core programming is to prepare the children for the outside world and give them the confidence that they will need. The FCC is strict on the guidelines of core programming, for example it must be aired between 7:00 am and 10:00 pm and must be at least a thirty minute program.
The FCC also limits the amount of commercial time during children's programming. The FCC only allows 10.5 minutes of advertisement on weekdays during children programming and only 12 minutes per hour on weekends. Cable networks and providers are responsible for keeping records to prove that they are following the rules of the FCC. The FCC also eliminates Host Selling. Host selling is using program characters to sell a product or service. The FCC believes that host selling is unethical and not fair to such a young audience. I believe that the FCC is acting appropriately with setting guidelines about children's programming. It is our responsibly to protect our children from being taken advantage of by companies looking to make a profit.