Letter+to+the+CRTC

** To Who It May Concern, **

Our names are Shannon Sanchuck, Jennifer Hall and Angela Kelly. We are writing you this letter as concerned teachers, parents, community members and consumers of mass media. We have been regular shoppers, television viewers and inquiring minds for our entire lives. However, it has recently been brought to our attention just how pervasive and damaging all of these influences are on all members of our society, especially young children. Over the past thirty years, with the implementation of deregulation by president Regan, marketing companies have successfully managed to completely infiltrate the lives of our young children. Subjecting them to a constant barrage of inappropriate content and affectively brainwashing them into mindless consumers at frighteningly young ages. It appears, as we peruse various television commercials and children’s programs currently in syndication on Canadian broadcasting corporations’ television channels, that there is virtually nothing being done by our own government to combat these powerful negative influences on our children.

Is it fair for you to allow multinational corporations like McDonald’s, Nike and Mattel (to name few) to inundate the innocent and impressionable minds of our young ones? Isn’t there something that you can do to better control what are children are being exposed to while they are watching television? The CRTC is supposed to be operating in the interest of public service, yet who are you really serving? We know that this letter may just cross a desk and eventually get posted to some online public forum somewhere. However, it is our eventual hope and goal that something is done to better inform and protect our children, our collective future, from the harmful and oppressive influences of media messages.

We have started a plan of action to better inform parents, teachers, community members and children about this societal epidemic. It has taken the form of an online public information source wiki that we have called The Commercialization of Childhood. The link to our Wiki is as follows: http://commercializationofchildhood.wikispaces.com/. If nothing else we hope that you can help to spread the awareness and information contained on this wiki and help us to expand the current body of resources present there. Thank-you, for your anticipated consideration and action on this very troubling and deeply impacting issue on our youth.

Sincerely, Shannon Sanchuck, Jennifer Hall and Angela Kelly

**CRTC Response:**

====If I understand your concerns correctly, it is the entire viewing experience that leads to commercialism, not just the advertising. I also see from your website that you are concerned with more than just television. This is a social and fundamental economic issue that lies outside the jurisdiction of the CRTC. Marketing and advertising activities are legal in Canada and throughout what is often called the "free world". ====

==== Our mandate is set by Parliament through the Broadcasting Act (the Act), specifically through Section 3 "Broadcasting Policy for Canada": http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/B-9.01/page-2.html#h-4 You will see that there is nothing that gives the CRTC the authority to limit commercialization. ====

==== Indeed, most TV broadcasters depend mainly on advertising revenue as they sell air time to advertisers to earn revenue. This is discussed in our Fact Sheet "Broadcast advertising basics: revenue, limits and content": @http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/b300.htm ====

==== The Act makes broadcasters themselves responsible for the programming they provide, including advertisements. Our job is to make sure broadcasters have acted responsibly and to hold them answerable for their programming when it's called for. However, you should note that the Commission does not have the power to censor programming before it has been aired. Moreover, the Commission has made it very clear that when considering complaints, it will continue to take into account the guaranteed right of freedom of expression contained in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and reflected in section 2 (3) of the Act. ====

==== Nevertheless, the CRTC has, and continues, to work with the industry to develop codes of behaviour for broadcasters; these guidelines, including topics such as advertising to children and sex-role portrayal, are administered by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC). At the same time, it's important to note that no regulatory body could ever match the watchful eye of a parent. ====

==== Children's advertising includes any paid commercial message carried in or immediately adjacent to a children's program and any commercial message that is determined by the broadcaster as being directed to children and is carried in or immediately adjacent to any other program. Broadcasters must abide by the Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children published by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. It is a condition of licence for all radio and television broadcasters, and it is administered by Advertising Standards Canada: @http://www.adstandards.com/en/clearance/childrens/broadcastCodeForAdvertisingToChildren.aspx ====

==== Here is a link to our Fact Sheet "How to File a Broadcasting Complaint" which gives you an idea of the types of complaints we can handle. It also sets out the information that is needed to pursue a complaint, by either the CRTC or the CBSC: @http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/G8.htm ====

==== IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do not reply to this message using the email address indicated above as we cannot receive e-mail at this address. To reply or to add to your submission, please click here and follow the prompts: @http://www.crtc.gc.ca/rapidsccm/landing.asp?lang=E&caseid=559057&key=41303.5230600309 ====