FTC Asked To Redefine Definition of Programming Targeted To Kids, Teens

A consortium of kids activists and academics has asked the Federal Trade Commission to redefine its definition of programming targeted to kids and teens to be able to collect more information on the marketing by popular TV shows, and to collect it from program distributors as well as food marketers. "The Commission should inquire into industry expenditure and exposure data for marketing that reaches large numbers of children and adolescents even when they are a small percentage of the overall audience," said the Food Marketing To Children Workshop in comments filed at the FTC. Currently, the FTC defines ads targeted to kids as any program for which kids made up at least 30% of the audience, and teen-targeted is any program with at least a 20% adolescent audience. But the group, which was assembled by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Berkeley Media Studies Group, points out that the FTC conceded that excludes the top five TV shows watched by adolescents in 2006. It wants the FTC to modify the definition to capture such shows, which include The Simpsons and American Idol. The group also wants the FTC to collect more data, including on targeted marketing, privacy, and to expand the collection to media companies who carry the ads as well as food marketers.