Woke Nashville Group Takes Issue With Proposed FCC Warnings Regarding Gender Identity Programming

Image Credit: Canva

Tennessee Conservative News [By Paula Gomes] –

A Nashville-based free speech advocacy group has taken issue with a recent FCC inquiry debating whether warnings should be disclosed for programming containing gender identity themes.

Housed at Vanderbilt University, The Future of Free Speech which calls itself a “nonpartisan think tank” filed 7 pages worth of comments regarding the inquiry.

The FCC inquiry seeking comment on “further empowering parents to protect their children and make informed choices about the TV programs their children watch” was filed in April.

Television and video programming industries opted to establish their own voluntary system for rating programming, the TV Oversight Management Board (TVOMB), after the United States Congress passed legislation in 1996 that required TV Parental Guidelines based on the fact that TV programming has a “uniquely pervasive presence in the lives of American children” and “influences children’s perceptions of the values and behavior that are common and acceptable in society.” 

Currently, TV Parental Guidelines allow content descriptors to be included with the ratings of TV-G, TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA. Descriptors let parents know that programs have sexually suggested dialog (D), fantasy violence (FV), coarse or crude language (L), sexual situations (S), and/or violence (V).

Over the last three decades since the law was passed, parents have seen a shift in how programming is rated with inappropriate content being increasingly rated as appropriate for young children. More and more, gender identity issues are being included in children’s programming with no disclosure which undermines the ability of parents to make informed choices about what their children watch.

“Consistent with Congress’s vision for the ratings system, we seek comment on whether the industry’s approach is continuing to provide the information that is relevant to parents today,” stated the FCC notice. “By passing the relevant legislation in 1996, Congress acted to protect the right of parents to decide when and how to discuss mature topics with their children, and to know if and when their children are being exposed to these topics in their TV viewing. Accordingly, we seek comment here on any changes that can or should be made to the current ratings system to ensure that it is responsive to the issues that parents confront today. This includes any changes that may make sense for the TVOMB to ensure that it is representative of a range of family values. We also ask how ratings can be applied consistently across broadcast, MVPDs, and streaming platforms.”

Attorneys with The Future of Free Speech claim the notice is “vague” and that the lack of clarity is “a serious First Amendment problem” involving arbitrary enforcement and political pressure around “protected expression.”

In 2019, Congress asked the FCC’s Media Bureau to report on both the accuracy of the voluntary rating system and on TVOMB’s ability to oversee the system and address public concerns.

In that report, the bureau made several suggestions for TVOMB related to increasing awareness of the role of the board and also increasing accessibility to the public including publicizing the ability of the public to file complaints with TVOMB.

The recent FCC notice seeks comment on how the Bureau’s suggestions have been implemented, if at all. Some of their inquiries include whether TVOMB has sufficiently engaged with the public, whether their board is “sufficiently balanced to represent a broad range of stakeholders outside of the entertainment industry” and what additional steps the board could take to include “to include family-oriented perspectives—which are not well represented in the media industry—in its ratings process.”

Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.