LOS ANGELES—The Parents Television Council has changed its name to Parents Television and Media Council to better reflect its mission to advocate for responsible entertainment on all entertainment media platforms.

In a statement announcing the change, PTC President Tim Winter said, “The traditional television screen has been transforming rapidly in recent years, and perhaps no faster than in the past year because of the pandemic. Children today consume their entertainment content not primarily on a television in the living room, but on ubiquitous screens—computers, phones, tablets, videogame devices, you name it—wherever they go. And today, more graphic and age-inappropriate content is within their reach than ever before. 

“While we are proud of the rich brand equity that we’ve built for the ‘PTC’ over the past 25 years, if the PTC is to faithfully serve its mission, it must be a present and powerful force for parents wherever children are consuming their media. Our new name reflects this broader mission scope. And just as the PTC was founded as a nonpartisan organization, it will continue to be uniquely positioned as a place where concerned citizens—regardless of political position—can come together to advocate for a safer media environment for children,” Winter concluded.

PTC Board of Directors Chairman Don Noblitt shared his thoughts on the strategic importance of the company’s new name. “Every day, parents face new and different challenges to protect their kids, as harmful programming is easily within a child’s reach almost anytime and anywhere. No matter the platform or device, the entertainment industry remains ultimately responsible for its product, and the Parents Television and Media Council is uniquely positioned to continue its advocacy on behalf of families,” Noblitt said.

“The PTC will continue working to pursue its vision for a safe and sound entertainment media environment for children and families across our nation,” said Noblitt. “Our youngest generation is our most precious resource. And with so much explicit content from so many distributors across so many devices, the mission of the Parents Television and Media Council has never been more important.”

To learn more visit the Parents Television and Media Council.

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.”

LOS ANGELES—The Parents Television Council and Enough is Enough, advocacy groups that focus on internet safety and programming for children, are asking U.S Attorney General William Barr to open up an investigation into Netflix on whether it violated federal statutes against child pornography by distributing the French film “Cuties.”

“Cuties” has been surrounded in controversy since its debut on the streaming platform. The story follows a group of 11-year-old girls that try to win a dance competition with a dance routine that PTC describes as “highly eroticized.” Other sexual situations are presented in the film, though no child nudity is depicted. The film is rated TV-MA.

In September, Netflix was indicted by a grand jury in Tyler County, Texas, for the “promotion of lewd visual material depicting [a] child” in “Cuties.” Some conservative U.S. Senators, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have also criticized the film and called on Netflix to take action.

“We are urging the Attorney General to thoroughly investigate whether Netflix has violated federal law in its distribution of the film ‘Cuties,’” said PTC President Tim Winter. “It is time for Netflix to be held to account for its apparent infatuation with sexualizing children in its entertainment programming, of which ‘Cuties’ is one of many examples.”

The PTC and EIE also refer to other Netflix programming, including series “Sex Education” and “Big Mouth.”

“It’s past time for Netflix and other streaming platforms to get on board with America’s zero-tolerance policy of child pornography or face criminal charges,” added Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough is Enough.

In an interview with Variety, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos responded to the “Cuties” controversy, saying that the film is misunderstood and action against it raises First Amendment concerns about government efforts to pressure the company.

“The film speaks for itself,” Sarandos told Variety. “It’s a very personal coming of age film, it’s the director’s story and the film has obviously played very well at Sundance without any of this controversy and played in theaters throughout Europe without any of this controversy. It’s a little surprising that in 2020 America we’re having a discussion about censoring storytelling.”

Sarandos said that Netflix has no plans to alter the film.

LOS ANGELES—There is more profanity and violence in primetime programming presently than there was a decade ago, according to a new research report from the Parents Television Council. Despite the increase in these shows, PTC points out that there have not been changes in the age-based content ratings used by the networks.

For programs rated TV-PG, PTC found that there was 28% more violence and 43.5% profanity in primetime broadcast programs from the 2017 and 2018 TV season than the 2007 and 2008 season. For TV-14 programs, PTC found a more than 150% increase in violence and 62% increase in profanity using the same years.

Other findings from PTC’s report indicate that there are now more TV-14 rated shows than those rated TV-PG, while from 10 years ago the opposite was true. In both time periods, there were no shows that earned a TV-G rating during “sweeps” period on Fox, CW and ABC, while the overall number of TV-G rated shows number five or fewer.

“Simply put, parents cannot possibly rely on a TV content rating system that labels increasingly graphic content as appropriate for children,” said Tim Winter, PTC president.

In May, the FCC released its own report on its review of the current television content rating system, where it said “that sufficient concerns have been expressed” about the accuracy of the ratings, though no official conclusion was reached.

The PTC says that Congress has not effectively acted following this report and is calling on Congress “that the TV content ratings system, and the TV Parental Guidelines Oversight Monitoring Board, is overhauled to improve the accuracy, consistence, transparency and public accountability of the TV ratings.

“It is time for the TV content ratings system to reflect the realities of today’s entertainment media technologies and cultural landscape. Bold, positive and comprehensive improvements to a 22-year-old system are needed to bring it to the 21st century.”