LOS ANGELES—The Parents Television Council (PTC) has its own list of New Year’s Resolutions for the entertainment industry and its government oversight, including its continued effort to update the content ratings system.
PTC calls on the FCC to push for what it calls “meaningful reform” of the age-based TV content ratings system and push streaming platforms to adhere to a new system. In 2019, PTC provided a research report that there is currently more profanity and violence on TV than there was a decade ago.
The PTC calls out a number of the programs and studios/networks behind such content that it says sexualizes children. This includes Disney and the Hulu series (Disney owns Hulu) “PEN15”, Netflix programs “Cuties” and “Big Mouth” and HBO’s “Euphoria.”
Resolutions were also offered for Congress to pass an updated version of the Family Movie Act of 2005 in the hope of filtering out explicit content from streaming platforms, and President Elect Joe Biden’s incoming Justice Department, who PTC believes should “vigorously enforce” obscentiy and child pornography laws, including prosecuting entertainment companies that “sexually exploit children for profit.”
In addition, even after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that required creative solutions to on-screen intimacy are lifted, PTC wants TV and movie productions to continue to be judicious in how they depict on-screen intimacy.
“Last year, children were increasingly on screens due to the pandemic, and we anticipate this trend will only continue in 2021. That leaves children even more vulnerable to being exposed to explicit content that Hollywood markets to them. Yet there are things that Hollywood companies and Washington can do to better protect children, and we are urging them to resolve to make significant changes this year,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “We sincerely believe that these changes can happen for the betterment of our children and families across the U.S. Hollywood can use its influence for good, and there is no better cause than to invest in and lift up the youngest generations.”
