First Amendment Commons^™

Rethinking Regulation Of Advertising Aimed At Children, William A. Ramsey

Federal Communications Law Journal

In 1990, Congress passed the Children's Television Act ("CTA"), which directed the FCC to establish standards for broadcasters regarding the amount of children's programming aired and to enforce limits on the amount of commercial time aired during children's programming. The limits are meant to protect children from various harms caused by advertising aimed at children. This Note examines the constitutionality and the effectiveness of these commercial limits. The Note concludes that while the CTA's commercial limits are probably constitutional under the Court's test for regulations of commercial speech, the limits do not provide children with adequate protection from the harms …

Does Censorship Really Protect Children?, Michael Grossberg

Federal Communications Law Journal

Book Review: Not In Front of the Children, “Indecency,” Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth, Marjorie Heins, New York: Hill and Wang, 2001, 402 pages.

Marjorie Heins spent much of her career as a lawyer battling censorship with the American Civil Liberties Union. Today, she continues the fight as Director of the Free Expression Policy Project of the National Coalition Against Censorship. In an effort to understand the people who work to constrict the free flow of information, she stepped out of the trenches and into the library to do some research. Not In Front of the Children is the …

The First Amendment, Children, The Internet, And America's Public Libraries, Fred H. Cate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Children's Hour Revisited: The Children's Television Act Of 1990, Diane Aden Hayes

Federal Communications Law Journal

The Children's Television Act of 1990 was created to reduce advertising during children's programming and increase the number of educational programs for children. But by 1993 media watchers found that violations were frequent, and that what was purported to be educational television was often little more than cartoons. This Note argues that the apparent failure of the Act stems primarily from its vague standards. To correct these problems, more explicit regulations are necessary. Because new regulations can only go so far before they invade broadcasters' First Amendment rights, broadcasters and the FCC will have to compromise to create a workable …