Commercial Alert Urges Swift Action to Protect Children from Media Companies

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert				September 11, 2000

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today released its long-awaited
report on the marketing of violent entertainment to children
<http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/09/youthviol.htm>.  Our statement is below.


NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:			For More Information Contact:
Monday, September 11, 2000		Gary Ruskin (202) 296-2787

Commercial Alert Urges Swift Action to Protect Children from Media
Companies

Following the release of today's scathing Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
report on the "Marketing of Violent Entertainment to Children,"
Commercial Alert called for media companies to immediately stop
marketing violent entertainment to teenagers and children, and demanded
action to protect children from the predatory marketing practices of the
entertainment industry.

The FTC report "shows that the entertainment industry and its
advertising surrogates are strenuously pushing a toxic culture on
vulnerable and unsuspecting youth," said Gary Ruskin, Director of
Commercial Alert.  "They are at war with American parents; they have no
respect for families and the sanctity of the household.  And they have
no shame."

The FTC report concludes the entertainment industry promotes violence to
children in a deliberate and calculating manner. "Members of the motion
picture, music recording and electronic game industries routinely target
children under the age of 17 as the audience for movies, music and games
that they themselves acknowledge are inappropriate for children or
warrant parental caution due to their level of violent content," the
report states.  "The target marketing of R-rated films, explicit-labeled
music, and M-rated games to children under 17 is pervasive, and the
target marketing of PG-13 rated films and T-rated games to children
under 12 is common."

The entertainment industry treats children's minds "like oil fields or
gold mines to be exploited for profit," Ruskin said. 

While the FTC report provides useful detail about the marketing
practices of the movie, video game and music industries, it fails
parents by recommending "tried and failed" techniques of industry
self-regulation to halt the aggressive marketing of violent
entertainment to children.

"The FTC's toothless recommendations are a recipe for inaction, and a
pathetic gesture that will make possible the continued profiteering from
sales of violent products to children," Ruskin said.  

"Once again, parents see a system that shows more concern for
corporations that prey on children, than for children themselves,"
Ruskin said. "Parents pay taxes and they deserve something in return –
certainly more than this."

Commercial Alert urges immediate action to help parents fend off the
aggressive marketing of violent entertainment to their children:

* The President should issue an executive order stating that the federal
government will not contract with any advertising agency that produces
ads for violent entertainment, nor purchase advertising on any
television program that is violent, or contains ads for violent
entertainment.

* Congress should require music company CEO's to recite and distribute
the lyrics for each label's top ten selling songs at annual shareholders
meetings.

* Political parties should refuse and refund soft money campaign
contributions from companies that produce violent entertainment.

* Congress or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should require
TV stations to run public service announcements, as a condition of
licensure, about the health hazards of watching violent programming
before any violent program, or any ad for violent entertainment.

* Congress should restore the FTC's power to regulate advertising to
children as an unfair act or practice, and affirmatively direct the FTC
to undertake such action to protect children, and provide funding to
enable it to do so.

* The Surgeon General should launch a campaign to reduce children's
demand for violent entertainment.

* Corporations should make available to parents, upon request, all
advertising of violent entertainment that targets children.

Commercial Alert works to restrain the excesses of advertising,
marketing and commercialism.  Commercial Alert's web page is at
<http://www.essential.org/alert/>.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
See Commercial Alert's web page on media violence and children, at
<http://www.essential.org/alert/mediaviolence/index.html>.

The FTC's report is available at:
<http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/09/youthviol.htm>.

Commercial Alert's materials are distributed electronically via the
commercial-alert mailing list <commercial-alert@lists.essential.org>. To
subscribe to the commercial-alert mailing list, go to
<http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/commercial-alert> or send
the word "subscribe" to <alert@essential.org>.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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