Sesame Workshop Testifies at Congressional Hearing Rethinking the Children's Television Act

Gary Knell, the President and CEO of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind legendary Sesame Street and The Electric Company, today testified at a congressional hearing rethinking the Children’s Television Act and its relevance in today’s ever-changing media landscape.  At the hearing, held by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Knell urged Congress to carefully assess how children’s media use has evolved in the past 20 years and how federal policy should adapt to the changing times.       

“A child born in 1990, when the Children’s Television Act was passed, cannot remember a time when television or radio was the only way to access media,” said Knell. “To this child, a computer screen is really not much different from a television screen, and in this rapidly evolving digital media world, these screens are converging everyday.  Therefore, we need a ‘Children’s Media Act’ that modernizes the intent of the law and reflects on how children today are using digital media well beyond just the television set.”

The Children’s Television Act, which was passed in 1990, put in place requirements that broadcasters devote three hours a week to children’s educational and informational programming while setting limits around advertising to children on television.  With children’s media use now extending far beyond the television set, the hearing began discussions on whether federal policy enacted 20 years ago has met its original intent and evaluated how best to address the next generation’s media use. 

Knell highlighted how Sesame Workshop has successfully reached more than 77 million children throughout its nearly 40-year history, remaining the icon of children’s programming despite a changing media landscape.  He also gave his recommendations on how to bring federal policy in line with the challenges of a digital media age, including the need to incentivize the creation of more educational content to children across digital media platforms and to provide a better framework for protecting children’s health.

In particular, he encouraged that a national broadband plan must extend beyond hardwiring to include quality educational content for children.  He also urged greater emphasis be placed on the endemic issue of childhood obesity and children’s unique vulnerability to commercial persuasion across media platforms.  Knell suggested the adoption of a uniform nutrition standard and encouraged broadcasters do more to ensure that unhealthy food advertising is significantly reduced.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, children ages six and under are spending about two hours a day with television, computers and video games, which is just about the same amount of time they spend playing outside and about triple the time they spend with books. Older children ages eight to 18 years spend six and a half hours a day with media for recreational purposes, which is more time than they spend doing anything else, except for sleeping.  With regard to health, this is the first generation of children whose life expectancy may be lower than that of their parents due to childhood obesity.

“Forty years ago when Sesame Street was created to help disadvantaged preschool children prepare for school it was a groundbreaking experiment, proving that the power of television could be successfully used to educate our nation’s children,” said Knell.  “While in some ways the world of children’s media has changed completely since 1990, the irony is that, in other ways, it’s exactly the same. Media content—whether it’s delivered through the television screen, a hand-held device or in a video game—can play a powerful role in children’s education.”

Sesame Workshop harnessed the power of media to educate children four decades ago with the legendary Sesame Street, and it continues to use innovation across multiple media platforms – television, broadband, gaming, cell phones and iPods -- to help prepare all children for school.  Considered the most carefully conceived and thoroughly researched preschool television program, the first evaluations of Sesame Street indicated that children who were exposed to the show scored higher on letter, number and classification tests than non-viewers. The more children viewed, the greater their knowledge.  In 98 percent of American households, Sesame Street remains the most widely watched and trusted children’s television series in history with an intergenerational reach to over 77 million “graduates” now watching the show with their children and grandchildren. 

Additionally, Sesame Workshop recently launched the new Electric Company, a television show targeted to six- to nine year-olds which offers a robust broadband component.  The Electric Company is part of PBS KIDS Raising Readers, a national literacy initiative focused on using public media to improve the reading skills for children ages two-to-eight, with an emphasis on children from low-income families.  Since the mid-January launch of The Electric Company, there have been nearly four million website visits and over 11 million Electric Company video clips played. 

About Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization that changed television forever with the legendary Sesame Street.  As the single largest informal educator of young children, local Sesame Street programs produced in countries as diverse as South Africa, Bangladesh and India are making a difference in over 120 nations.  Using proprietary research to create engaging and enriching content, Sesame Workshop produces programs such as Dragon Tales and Pinky Dinky Doo.  In addition, multimedia needs-driven initiatives providefamilies tools for addressing such issues as children’s health, military deployment and emergency preparedness.   As a nonprofit, product proceeds and philanthropic donations support Sesame Workshop’s educational research and creative content for children around the world.  Learn more at www.sesameworkshop.org.

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