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France bans kiddie channels |
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| Chris Forrester, on 21-08-2008 |
France’s Conseil Superieur d’Audiovisuel (CSA), its television regulator, has prohibited the broadcasting of shows to children under three years of age.
This is understood to immediately affect channels like Baby TV, and
BabyFirstTV which are widely available on French cable systems.
France's minister for culture and communication, Christine Albanel,
issued a "cry of alarm" to parents in June about channels dedicated 24
hours a day to baby-targeted programming. In a newspaper interview, she
called them "a danger" and urged parents not to use them to help their
children get to sleep. The intention is to shield children from
developmental risks, says the CSA.
Baby TV and BabyFirstTV are not based in France, and this might well
encourage the channels to fight the ruling based on Europe’s
“Television Without Frontiers” directive, which permits channels that
are properly licensed in one member state to beam their signals into
neighbouring states within Europe. Certain Scandinavian nations have
forbidden advertising to children, for example, and this has resulted
in most such channels being based – and licensed - in London.
The CSA ruling also orders French cable operators that air other
foreign channels with programming for babies to broadcast warning
messages to parents. The messages must read: "Watching television can
slow the development of children under 3, even when it involves
channels aimed specifically at them."
It is quite likely that Award-winning programming like BBC Worldwide’s
Tellytubbies, which specifically targets very young children, would
have to carry the warning caption. "Television viewing hurts the
development of children under 3 years old and poses a certain number of
risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition,
over-excitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration as well as
dependence on screens," the CSA ruling said.
Guy Oranim, CEO and co-founder of BabyFirstTV, said he "respectfully
objects" to the French council's ruling. He said the channel's content
is carefully screened to ensure it is positive and educational, and
that the channel encourages parents to make sure their babies don't go
overboard on TV but include it in a balanced schedule. "One of the
reasons we created BabyFirstTV is that we thought there was no good
programming for babies on TV, and according to the research that is out
there, most of the babies are watching TV anyway," he said.
BabyFirstTV is backed by Dutch/Israeli and Los Angeles-based financial
institutions. BabyTV is owned by Fox, and based in London.
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