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 Prepared  Remarks  of  FCC  Chairman  Kevin  J.  Martin  at  announcement  of 
 Task  Force  on  Media  and  Childhood  Obesity:  Today  and  Tomorrow 
 U.  S.  Capitol  Washington,  DC 


 September  27,  2006 
 Thank  you,  Senator  Brownback,  for  inviting  me  to  join  you  here  today  for  the  launch  of  a  task 
 force  charged  with  addressing  the  role  of  media  in  childhood  obesity. 


 Both  Congress  and  the  Commission  have  taken  steps  to  ensure  that  broadcasters  are  mindful  of 
 the  unique  needs  and  vulnerabilities  of  children.  Indeed,  in  the  Children’s  Television  Act  of 
 1990,  Congress  enacted  limits  on  the  amount  of  advertising  that  could  be  shown  during 
 children’s  television  programming. 


 By  the  time  the  average  child  is  18  years  old,  he  or  she  has  spent  between  10,000  and  15,000 
 hours  watching  television  and  has  been  exposed  to  more  than  200,000  commercials.  Congress 
 also  noted  that  it  is  well  established  by  scientific  research  that  children  are  uniquely  susceptible 
 to  the  persuasive  messages  contained  in  television  advertising. 


 Today,  children  watch  two  to  four  hours  of  television  per  day  and  view  40,000  ads  per  year. 
 And  the  majority  of  these  commercials  are  for  candy,  cereal,  soda  and  fast  food.  And  while  the 
 amount  of  television  watched  by  American  kids  has  been  increasing  in  the  past  twenty-  five 
 years,  so  have  their  waistlines.  Just  this  month  the  Institute  of  Medicine  found  that  one-  third  of 
 American  children  are  either  obese  or  at  risk  for  obesity.  This  is  consistent  with  the  Center  for 
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 Disease  Control‘  s  findings  a  few  years  ago  that,  since  1980,  the  proportion  of  overweight 
 children  ages  6-  11  has  doubled  and  the  number  of  overweight  adolescents  has  tripled. 


 While  children’s  television  viewing  has  significantly  increased,  their  susceptibility  to  television 
 ads  has  not  decreased.  According  to  the  Kaiser  Family  Foundation,  children  under  6  cannot 
 distinguish  between  programming  content  and  advertising.  And  children  under  10  do  not  have 
 cognitive  ability  to  understand  a  commercial’s  persuasive  intent. 


 Small  children  can’t  weed  out  the  marketing  messages  from  their  favorite  show,  especially  when 
 marketing  campaigns  feature  favorite  TV  characters  like  SpongeBob  and  Scooby-  Doo.  There  is 
 no  doubt  that  children’s  advertising  is  big  business.  The  Kaiser  Family  Foundation  also  found 
 that  fast  food  companies  alone  spend  $3  billion  per  year  targeting  kids. 


 The  research  linking  childhood  obesity  with  media  and  advertising  to  children  troubles  me  as  a 
 parent  and  as  Chairman  of  the  FCC. 


 That  is  why  I  was  so  pleased  to  accept  Senator  Brownback’s  invitation  for  the  Commission  to 
 participate  in  a  new  joint  task  force  that  will  build  on  the  good  work  that  has  already  been  done 
 on  this  topic;  some  of  it  done  by  people  here  with  us  today. 


 As  the  Senator  mentioned,  the  task  force  will  assemble  representatives  from  the  food,  television, 
 and  advertising  industries,  along  with  consumer  advocacy  groups  and  health  experts,  to  work 
 together  to  address  this  important  issue.  When  the  task  force  has  completed  its  work,  the  FCC 
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 will  issue  the  task  force  report  to  summarize  what  we  have  learned,  encourage  best  practices  for 
 industry  and  continue  to  educate  American  parents.  We  all  have  a  responsibility  to  promote  and 
 protect  our  children’s  welfare. 


 So  I  appreciate  all  the  organizations  that  have  joined  us  in  this  effort,  some  of  whom  are 
 represented  here  today:  The  American  Psychological  Association,  Children  Now,  Disney,  the 
 Beverly  LaHaye  Institute,  and  Parents  Television  Council.  Thank  you  for  coming.  I  also  want 
 to  thank  Senator  Brownback  and  Commissioner  Tate  for  championing  this  issue.  Thank  you. 


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