Children want to see more drama on television, they are interested in news and current affairs and watch television at times when only soap operas are broadcast. These are some of the findings from a study called What Children Want, conducted by the Media Monitoring Project (MMP) in South Africa.
The MMP said in a statement that it has appealed to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to take its recommendations seriously and apply them to the new broadcasting licence for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
”What happened is that Icasa has to issue new licence conditions for the SABC’s 18 public broadcasting services, and they drew up draft licence conditions,” William Bird, director of the MMP, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Thursday.
”We answered Icasa’s call for public contribution to the proposed draft licence conditions. It is a very fascinating process, because these new licences will determine how public broadcasting will look like in the future.
”We made our submission, and then the SABC had to respond to all the submissions and the draft regulation, and now it is up to Icasa to decide.”
The MMP research into children and the media challenges a number of preconceived ideas about children’s programming, such as how it is understood and how it should be regulated.
Together with the North Primary School, the MMP carried out questionnaire-based research with more than 140 pupils, between nine and 13 years of age, from Gauteng and the Free State.
The child participants were male and female, and from a range of socio-economic, provincial and racial backgrounds. According to the MMP, the research findings offer both optimistic and worrying trends:
- Forty-nine percent of all of the children interviewed expressed the need for drama programmes that focus on children. The MMP states that this finding highlights the clear desire for children to see themselves and their issues represented.
- An average of 40% of the children aged between nine and 12 watched television from 4pm to 6pm, while 35% of the children aged 13 preferred watching television between 6pm and 8pm.
”At the times where the children indicated that they watched television, soaps are broadcast on all channels. Not only on the SABC, but the whole broadcasting spectrum [SABC, e.tv and M-Net] is not focused on children at these times. There is nothing wrong with soaps, but there should also be an alternative for kids,” said Bird.
- Despite soap operas clearly not targeting children, they were repeatedly cited as programmes that the children watched on a daily basis. Given the generally stereotypical views and values that soap operas endorse, and the adult-focused content of these programmes, this is a concerning finding, said the MMP.
- Only 2% of the children interviewed watch television early in the morning; the times when many children’s programmes are broadcast (excluding weekends, when the figures were marginally higher). According to the report this, together with the MMP’s finding on soap operas, suggests that the broadcast times of children’s programmes need to be revised.
- Thirty-four percent of children expressed an interest in news and current affairs programmes, which disproves the myth that children’s programming requirements are limited to entertainment alone. In addition, this finding highlights that children are interested in news. The broadcast of the Kids Newsroom programme on SABC2, therefore, is to be welcomed, said the MMP.
- As expected, music and cartoon programming featured highly among the types of programmes most watched by the children, at an average of 70%.
Seventy-five percent of the child participants clearly expressed that they want less advertising to be broadcast on television.
The MMP said this finding highlights the need for the levels of advertising to be reduced during times when children’s programmes are broadcast, or when large numbers of children are likely to be watching. This finding also raises concerns about the types of products being advertised during these periods.
”With the rising amount of children suffering from obesity, we should wonder whether there should not be regulations on fast-food and cold-drink commercials for children,” Bird said.
”And it is not just the amount of advertising, but also the repeat of certain commercials. It has been proven that the repeat of commercials borders on propaganda; if you see something often enough you will start to believe it. In Sweden, for example, there is a law that forbids the repeat of commercials within certain intervals.”
A number of child participants cited advertisements for alcoholic beverages as their favourite advertisements:
- ”I hate the Hansa one coz [because] it shows more people to drink” (aged 11).
- ”I like the Castle Lager ad where he goes to different places” (aged 13).
- ”I hate [the] Hansa [advertisement] because he hates being black or white, [I like the] Castle [advertisement] because it is my favourite” (aged 10).
”The MMP is concerned about this finding. These advertisements should not be broadcast at times when children comprise a significant portion of the audience,” said the MMP’s statement.
”We are not just concerned with the commercials, but also with the use of alcohol in, for instance, soap series that are broadcast in slots where a lot of kids are watching TV,” Bird explains.
The SABC has hardly mentioned the submission of the MMP in its response.
”The SABC’s response, much to our disappointment, made little mention of children, and that is disappointing in our emerging democracy. They only mentioned a restriction on advertising certain products at times when children will be watching TV,” Bird said.
”The SABC says that the programmes that the children watch are the responsibility of the parents. We agree with that to a certain extent, but we also would like to point out the responsibility that the public broadcaster has in this society.”
According to Bird, the television has proved to be the biggest babysitter in countries that have large groups of people living under poor socio-economic circumstances.
”The argument that parents are responsible is true when it comes to middle-class families, who have the money and the facilities to entertain children in a different way. But most poor families have no choice but to put the kid in front of the television. To these groups, the SABC does have a responsibility,” Bird said.
”I do understand the difficult position of the SABC. They have a public mandate, but they do not get enough government funding to actually fulfil this mandate, so they have to rely on advertising.
”But what we ask from Icasa is that they put the rights of the children above the rights of the advertiser. Icasa has the constitutional obligation to protect the best interests of the child.”
The SABC was not available for comment on Thursday.