Regulations on children's television programming in the United States facts for kids
The Children's Television Act (often called CTA, E/I rules, or Kid Vid rules) is a set of rules in the United States that helps make sure kids have good TV shows to watch. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) created these rules.
Since 1997, most TV stations have to show at least three hours of special programs each week. These shows must be designed to teach and inform children up to 16 years old. This is why they are called "E/I" programs, which stands for educational and informative.
The rules also limit how much advertising can be shown during kids' shows for children 12 and younger. For example, they can't show ads for toys that are related to the show currently on TV.
The Children's Television Act started in 1990. In 1991, the FCC made rules that required TV stations to keep track of shows that helped children aged 16 and under grow in positive ways, like helping their minds or emotions. The FCC would check this when stations renewed their licenses.
In 1997, the rules became stricter. Stations had to broadcast at least three hours of E/I programming each week. They also had to clearly label these shows and report more details about them.
These rules changed TV in the U.S. A lot more educational shows were made for syndication (shows sold to many different stations). Also, the famous Saturday morning cartoon blocks on major networks started focusing more on educational content. However, because of these rules and the rise of cable channels like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon (which didn't have the same strict rules), broadcast TV started showing fewer non-educational kids' shows.
Not everyone liked the E/I rules. Some people worried they might limit free speech for broadcasters. Early rules were criticized for being too broad, meaning stations sometimes called non-educational shows "educational." Some studies even found that truly "highly educational" programming decreased. Critics also said that many E/I shows were low-quality documentaries that kids didn't watch.
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Why Were These Rules Made?
People started worrying about how TV affected children back in the 1950s, when TV was new. Parents and lawmakers wondered what impact it had on young people. Research began to study the link between TV and children.
One big concern was about commercials. Studies showed that young children often couldn't tell the difference between a TV show and the ads during it. They didn't understand that commercials were trying to convince them to buy things. This made them easy targets for advertisers. Companies, especially those selling junk food, wanted to reach young people because kids could influence their parents' spending and might become loyal customers later on.
How TV Shows Changed
After the rules came in, many TV stations stopped making their own kids' shows because it was expensive. Instead, they bought educational programs from other companies. Companies like Litton Entertainment became popular because they made these kinds of shows.
A study by the Annenberg Foundation found that the number of "highly educational" shows on network TV dropped from 43% in 1990 to 29% in 1998. One reason was that the definition of "educational TV" was too wide. Shows about social issues counted, not just those teaching things like the alphabet or numbers. Writers for these shows sometimes weren't trained in writing for kids, so the stories weren't always great for young viewers. An exception was The Magic School Bus, which did a great job combining fun stories with learning.
TV networks also liked shows that were based on popular characters or could be turned into toys. After PBS's Barney & Friends became very successful, Disney and Nickelodeon became more interested in making preschool shows that were both fun and educational.
Saturday Morning TV Changes
The stricter rules made big changes to Saturday morning TV. Major networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC changed their lineups in 1997 to include more educational shows.
- ABC launched One Saturday Morning in 1997. It had Disney cartoons, short educational segments (like Robin Williams as the Genie from Aladdin teaching history), and new educational shows like Science Court. ABC said most of its five-hour block would be E/I. It became very popular. Later, it was renamed ABC Kids and showed programs from Disney's cable channels.
- CBS changed its Saturday morning block to Think CBS Kids in 1997. It focused on live-action educational shows like The New Ghostwriter Mysteries and Wheel 2000 (a kids' version of Wheel of Fortune). The next year, it became CBS Kidshow, focusing on cartoons based on children's books. Later, CBS partnered with Nickelodeon to show Nick Jr. preschool programs.
- NBC had stopped showing cartoons on Saturday mornings in 1992, replacing them with live-action sitcoms for teens called TNBC. In 2001, after low ratings, TNBC was replaced by Discovery Kids on NBC, which showed factual and educational cartoons. In 2006, Qubo took over, focusing on educational programming. Later, in 2012, NBC Kids started, showing preschool programs from the channel Sprout.
Because of these rules and the rise of cable channels and online video, it became harder for networks to show non-educational cartoons on Saturday mornings. By 2014, even The CW, the last major network with non-educational weekend morning shows, announced it would switch to an E/I block.
Big Fines for Breaking Rules
Some TV stations and networks faced large fines for not following the rules:
- In 2007, Univision paid a huge $24 million fine. They had claimed that some of their youth-focused soap operas (like Cómplices Al Rescate) were educational, but the FCC disagreed.
- Kids' WB was fined because of ads during the Pokémon anime. They showed commercials for products like Eggo waffles and Fruit by the Foot that were tied to Pokémon. Even though the network sent the content, individual local stations were fined. In 2010, a station in Washington was fined $70,000 for showing an ad for a collectibles shop during Yu-Gi-Oh! that mentioned the game's trading cards.
- In 2004, Disney and Viacom were fined $1 million and $500,000 respectively. These fines were for breaking advertising limits on their cable channels, ABC Family and Nickelodeon. These fines came from the Federal Trade Commission, not the FCC, because cable channels have different rules.
New Types of Shows for Teens
In the early 2010s, many broadcasters started changing how they met the E/I rules. Instead of cartoons for young kids, they began showing factual, documentary, and reality-style series aimed at older teens (13-16 years old).
Networks like ABC, CBS, The CW, and NBC started working with companies like Litton Entertainment to air these types of shows on weekend mornings. Fox also partnered with Steve Rotfeld Productions for a block called Xploration Station, which focused on STEM topics (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
These shows for teens (13-16) don't have the same strict advertising limits as shows for younger kids (12 and under). Some critics worried that these shows included "product placement" from companies like SeaWorld, which went against the spirit of the Children's Television Act. However, Litton Entertainment said their shows met high educational standards and were better than showing ads for junk food and toys.
PBS stations are different. Their PBS Kids block still mostly airs animated, educational series for preschool children.
Images for kids
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Reed Hundt in 2008. He was a chairman of the FCC.
