The FCC, led by Trump-appointed chairman Brendan Carr, is opening a new front in its “anti-woke” campaign: The agency is seeking feedback about whether the TV industry’s voluntary ratings system needs to be changed — specifically with regard to how shows with child-friendly ratings treat content with “transgender and gender nonbinary” themes.
The agency’s Media Bureau notice seeking comment, issued Wednesday, says the deadline for comments is May 22 with reply comments due June 22. The proceeding is filed under MB Docket No. 19-41.
Regarding the TV ratings system, Carr wrote in a post on X, “parents have raised concerns with the industry’s approach — including with ratings creep. Specifically, they argue that New York & Hollywood programmers are promoting controversial issues in kids programming without providing any transparency or disclosures to parents. This undermines the whole point of the law and the ratings system parents rely on.”
The TV ratings, adopted in are used by traditional TV broadcasters, pay-TV cable and satellite providers TV sector, and streaming platforms like Netflix. The system overseen by the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board, which was put in place after Congress passed a 1996 law that led to the establishment of an industry voluntary rating system.
While the FCC does not directly set or enforce the TV content ratings, it has the authority to review the effectiveness of the ratings system.
Per the Media Bureau’s request for comment, “In recent years… significant concerns have been raised about the ratings system. For instance, commenters have raised concerns with the FCC about the accuracy of the ratings, the appropriateness of the ratings, and a shift or ratings creep in which mature, adult or inappropriate content is being rated as appropriate for young children.”
The document continued, “The FCC wants to ensure that the ratings system continues to serve the purpose that Congress had in mind — empowering parents to make informed decisions for their children. Recently, parents have raised concerns that controversial gender identity issues are being included or promoted in children’s programs without providing any disclosure or transparency to parents. Specifically, the industry guidelines that parents rely on are rating shows with transgender and gender nonbinary programming as appropriate for children and young children, and doing so without providing this information to parents, thereby undermining the ability of parents to make informed choices for their families.”
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The agency said it is seeking comment regarding “increased transparency” of the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board and the “accuracy of TV ratings.”
FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency’s only Democratic commissioner, criticized the Media Bureau’s call for comments on TV ratings.
“American families are worried about affordability, access and rising costs, not whether the TV ratings system has enough warnings about gender identity,” Gomez said in a statement. “The FCC’s own record shows the existing system is working fine. The most recent annual report found only 11 pieces of public correspondence relevant to the [TV ratings] board’s work, and spot checks turned up just two instances where a rating actually needed to be changed. This is a solution in search of a problem, and another example of this Commission prioritising culture war politics over the real issues that affect consumers every day.”
The questions posed by the FCC’s Media Bureau in the public notice included:
- Is the composition of the board sufficiently balanced to represent a broad range of stakeholders outside of the entertainment industry?
- What more could the board do to include family-oriented perspectives — which are not well represented in the media industry — in its ratings process?
- Should additional faith-based organizations be represented on the [TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board]?
- Are parents aware that children watching programs rated TV-Y, TV-Y7 and TV-G may contain the discussion or promotion of gender identity themes? Should such programming be rated differently or contain relevant descriptions so that parents can make informed decisions?
- Is there disparity in ratings among different viewing platforms; i.e., is the same program consistently rated when it airs on broadcasting, MVPDs, and streaming platforms? Are streaming platforms more broadly interpreting what is allowable in categories intended for audiences under TV-Y14?
- Is objectionable content rated consistently across various programmers? For example, do different networks rate explicit language, suggestive language and violent programming similarly, or are some networks prone to provide a lesser rating than others?
The request for public input on the matter was headlined “FCC’s Media Bureau Seeks Comment on Further Empowering Parents to Protect Their Children and Make Informed Choices About the TV Programs Their Children Watch.”
From Variety US