The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is raising concerns about whether voluntary TV ratings are properly informing parents about what their children may be watching about gender issues.
A public notice published by the FCC on April 22 sought public comment on whether the television and video industry ratings that were created in the 1990s are giving parents fair warning of the content their children are exposed to.
“Recently, parents have raised concerns that controversial gender identity issues are being included or promoted in children’s programs without providing any disclosure or transparency to parents,” the FCC notice reads.
“Specifically, the industry guidelines that parents rely on are rating shows with transgender and gender non-binary programming as appropriate for children and young children, and doing so without providing this information to parents, thereby undermining the ability of parents to make informed choices for their families.”
Some parents have raised concerns about a “ratings creep,” in which mature, adult, or inappropriate content is being rated as appropriate for young children, the FCC noted.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said on X that the FCC “is now seeking comment on whether the industry’s approach provides parents with the types of information and disclosures relevant to them today.”
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, said on X that the concerns were politically motivated.
“American families are worried about affordability, access, and rising costs, not whether the TV ratings system has enough warnings about gender identity,” Gomez said. “This is another example of this FCC prioritizing culture war politics over the real issues that affect consumers every day.”
Congress required a ratings system because, in 1996, it concluded that television programming had a “uniquely pervasive presence in the lives of American children.”
The TV and video industry chose to create its own voluntary rating system instead of having the FCC produce one. The current ratings system, which includes the ratings of TV-G, TV-PG, and TV-MA, is overseen by the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board.
The system already flags content such as violence, language, and sexual material through standard descriptors attached to ratings like TV-PG and TV-MA.
The FCC stated that the review will help ensure that ratings are “representative of a range of family values.”
The agency, which regulates communications by radio, television, the internet, and cable, among other platforms, questioned whether the current ratings system remains effective in an evolving media environment that now includes streaming platforms and on-demand content.
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