Pursuing a child-friendlier Philippine television
Pursuing a child-friendlier Philippine television, the National Council for Children’s Television (NCCT) concluded in October its Public Consultations on the Child-Friendly Television (CFTV) Standards.
NCCT drafted the CFTV Standards to serve as a guide for broadcast networks in creating child-friendly television content. Television networks are required by Section 9 of Republic Act No. 8370 or the Children’s Television Act of 1997, the same law that created NCCT, to allot at least 15 percent of their total daily airtime for CFTV programs.
R.A. 8370 vaguely defines CFTV as programs “which serve to further the positive development of children and contain no elements that may result in physical, mental, and emotional harm to them.”
The draft Standards further defines CFTV in terms of emphasis on an educational and informational purpose, objective to promote positive value formation and the Filipino culture, and age-appropriateness and appeal to children.
To further develop the Standards, NCCT held two-day public consultations in the following cities in September and October: Bacolod City, Negros Occidental; Batac City, Ilocos Norte; General Santos City, South Cotabato; Lipa City,
Batangas; and Pasig City, Metro Manila.
These areas belong to the top five regions where children have highest exposure to television based on NCCT’s in-house research on the television-viewing habits, amount of exposure, and program preferences of Filipino children.
The consultation reached two groups per area: the adults and the children. The adult group’s consultation was participated in by representatives from the parents, academe, children’s rights advocates, child development specialists, and youth sectors. These sectors shared their experiences with television and children and imparted their comments and suggestions on the draft Standards.
Meanwhile, consultations with children were conducted through focus group discussions (FGDs) held in three groups for each leg: purposively sampled elementary, high school, and college students below 18 years old. The FGDs strived to gather each age group’s insights on nationally aired programs, television-viewing habits and preferences, and suggestions on what to see more of in daily television programming.
The public consultations were held in partnership with Department of Education Division Offices, Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Offices, and the following academic institutions: University of St. La Salle – Bacolod, Notre Dame of Dadiangas University in General Santos City, Mariano Marcos State University in Batac City, and De La Salle Lipa.
Collation and analysis of data gathered during the consultations are ongoing. Dialogues with media practitioners will soon commence. Results will be integrated into the finalization of the Standards to be launched by first quarter of 2016.
