Aiming towards a Child-Friendlier Philippine Television, the National Council for Children’s Television (NCCT) conducted a series of dialogue with TV content creators from July 2019 to February 2020 in preparation for the monitoring of the 15% policy compliance under the Child-Friendly Content Standards (CFCS).

Executive producers, directors, production unit heads, writers, researchers, airtime and programming department heads, and legal consultants of the respective free-to-air TV networks in NCR attended the dialogue. This program was created in pursuant to Republic Act No. 8370 or the Children’s Television Act of 1997, Sec. 7 (d) “mandates the Council to formulate together with the television broadcast industry a set of standards that will be used in the conceptualization, production, and classification of television shows for children.”

The NCCT, through the Council Members, discussed the CFCS that would serve as a guide for the broadcast networks in creating child-friendly media content. Children’s television (CTV) programs and child-friendly TV (CFTV) shows were differentiated from one another, each criterion under the two program categories were thoroughly presented, and the monitoring and compliance process were explained, making the media practitioners understand the parameters of the standards and their responsibilities in adherence to the law. The broadcast networks affirmed the Council that they would comply with the rules and regulations of the said standards. Moreover, they were willing to promote and produce more CTV and CFTV programs.

Aside from presenting the standards and the results of the 2018 NCCT Research, the Council facilitated an open forum to recognize the concerns of the networks, which serve as the main players in the production of the child-friendly television content. Some of the concerns that were raised by the TV networks were the lack of financial support from advertisers to produce and broadcast CTV and CFTV programs, the limited working hours of children in the production and broadcasting as stipulated in the policy of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the promotion of CTV and CFTV programs in the educational setting, and the involvement of advertisements in the monitoring of child-friendly TV shows to name a few.

Suggestions like partnership with different government and non-government agencies like DOLE, Department of Education (DepEd), Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) and Advertising companies, and presentation and dissemination of the detailed monitoring and evaluation process in the implementation of the standards were raised to equip the media practitioners on its full capacity and gain support in the production and broadcasting of TV programs for children.

All of the concerns, questions, and suggestions by the participants were well-addressed and answered by the Council Members, assuring the content creators that the Council would guide them in creating high quality child-friendly media content.

The NCCT together with the TV content creators would work hand-in-hand in creating a child-friendlier TV landscape for the Filipino children.