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Children's content regulation and the 'obesity epidemic'

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journal contribution
posted on 2011-08-01, 00:00 authored by Leonie RutherfordLeonie Rutherford, D Biron, Helen Skouteris
Some 30 years ago, Australia introduced the Children's Television Standards (CTS) with the twin goals of providing children with high-quality local programs and offering some protection from the perceived harms of television. The most recent review of the CTS occurred in the context of a decade of increasing international concern at rising levels of overweight and obesity, especially in very young children. Overlapping regulatory jurisdictions and co-regulatory frameworks complicate the process of addressing pressing issues of child health, while rapid changes to the media ecology have both extended the amount of programming for children and increased the economic challenges for producers. Our article begins with an overview of the conceptual shifts in priorities articulated in the CTS over time. Using the 2007-09 Review of the CTS as a case study, it then examines the role of research and stakeholder discourses in the CTS review process and critiques the effectiveness of existing regulatory regimes, both in providing access to dedicated children's content and in addressing the problem of escalating obesity levels in the population.

History

Journal

Media international Australia incorporating culture and policy

Issue

140

Pagination

47 - 60

Publisher

University of Queensland : School of English, Media Studies & Art History

Location

St Lucia, QLD

ISSN

1329-878X

eISSN

2200-467X

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2011, University of Queensland, School of English, Media Studies & Art History

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