THE INTERNET FCC introduces Web site as guide for parents

The Web site explains the legal status of indecency and obscenity.
By JEFF GELLES
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Want to know how many minutes of commercials are allowed during your children's favorite TV programs?
How about the standards for indecency on television and radio -- believe it or not, there still are standards for radio -- and what hours of the day are no-holds-barred?
Want to learn how to avoid getting burned by your kids' dialing pay-per-call area-code-900 phone numbers?
You can get answers to all those questions, and a raft of others, at a brand-new Web site introduced this week by the Federal Communications Commission: www.fcc.gov/ parents.
I'm not normally in the business of touting Internet sites, but this one strikes me as remarkably valuable, perhaps because I have children of the teen and 'tween variety.
What it offers
It has sections on children's TV rules, the confusing ratings system for kids' programming, and the new Amber Alert system for missing children.
It even has a search engine for finding quarterly lists of shows that broadcasters count as "core programming" for children -- complete with the dutiful explanation that it's up to the broadcast station, not the FCC, to decide what counts as educational TV.
There are too many layers of detail for me to share anything beyond a smattering. But here are a few of the things I learned recently during a brief visit to the site:
Time limits on commercials apply during programs aimed primarily at children who are 12 and younger. The weekday limit is 12 minutes per hour. So you're not imagining it: Even on kids' shows, one minute in five can be a commercial.
No infomercials
Program-length commercials aimed at kids aren't allowed, and the rule doesn't just prohibit kids' infomercials -- which has to be one of the scarier concepts that's ever entered my brain. It also bars, for example, a cartoon broadcast that included a commercial for dolls based on its characters.
Since January 2000, all new television sets with screens 13 inches or larger have included so-called V-chip technology. With the V-chip, also available as an add-on device, you can block shows based on children's television ratings, which are considerably more nuanced than movie ratings.
If you're wondering about indecency, here's what the FCC says: Indecent material is prohibited between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., "when there is the greatest likelihood that children may be watching."
A tougher question is exactly what that standard means -- beyond that you can expect a fair amount of rude and lewd humor on "Saturday Night Live" and other late-night shows.
Explains legal status
The new FCC Web site rises to the occasion: It includes a useful primer on the legal status of indecency, which is protected by the First Amendment but can be restricted to protect children, and obscenity, which cannot be broadcast.
What it doesn't explain -- though there's evidence of it elsewhere on the FCC site -- is how difficult the agency has found it to enforce those standards, especially in an era of almost-anything-goes talk radio.
A recent split ruling by the commission in a case against a Detroit radio station is a case in point.
In March, it assessed a fine of $27,500 against WKRK-FM and its owner, Infinity Broadcasting, for indecency on its "Deminski & amp; Doyle Show" -- between 4:30 and 5 p.m.
Commissioner Michael Copps argued that the FCC should have moved to revoke WKRK's license. He said it "presented graphic descriptions of violent sexual acts against women as entertainment" at a time when children were probably listening. A small fine was just a slap on the wrist -- easily absorbed as a "cost of doing business" by a big media company.
Infinity, he pointed out, also owns the station whose "Opie & amp; Anthony" show last year depicted what it claimed was a sex act inside St. Patrick's Cathedral. The FCC has yet to decide what to do about that.
Is there a race to the bottom, fueled by radio's consolidation under big, distant owners who don't care about local mores? That what Copps believes.
But at least the FCC's new Web site does a good job of explaining the rules.