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TV advertising poses a double threat for children
Television watchdog Remotivi criticized local television networks on Thursday for airing programs that were unsuitable for children
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elevision watchdog Remotivi criticized local television networks on Thursday for airing programs that were unsuitable for children.
Remotivi has found gossip and entertainment programs take up more airtime than children's programs such as cartoons.
Surya Citra Televisi (SCTV), for example, dedicates only 0.23 percent of its broadcasting each day to children's programs, but 11.66 percent to shows categorized as entertainment, while Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia (RCTI), the country's first commercial television station, dedicates 11.5 percent of airtime
to children's programs and 16.5 percent to entertainment.
ANTV, which belongs to a media group controlled by the family of Golkar Party politician Aburizal Bakrie, is the station showing the largest portion of children's programs at around 22.4 percent. It only spares 2.3 percent for entertainment.
In terms of quality, Remotivi director Muhamad Heychael said that most free-to-air TV channels were not supportive of children's education as they aired soap operas containing sex, violence and other inappropriate content for young children such as unregistered marriages and love affairs, during the early hours of the evening when children were watching TV.
'No wonder children nowadays psychologically grow up very fast and the number of children being violent remains high, because they tend to imitate what they watch on television,' Heychael said on Thursday, adding that most of the soap operas contained more than 30 percent physical and verbal violance.
Other programs deemed to affect children's psychology are cigarette ads, which are aired for 22,018 seconds, or about six hours, every day.
Heychael said Indonesia was the only country in ASEAN yet to ban cigarette ads.
Remotivi blamed the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) for weak monitoring. 'We have a regulation which isn't well implemented and the state is absent. The KPI, who is supposed to be responsible for prevention, shows no real action,' Heychael said.
Data from the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) shows increasing reports of bullying and violence against children, from 485 cases in 2011 to 970 in 2014.
From the total number, many of the abusers, in fact, are children also, according to KPAI commissioner Maria Ulfah Anshor.
She said that it was the effect of what they watched on television. 'From our monitoring, we have found that inappropriate content for children, such as horror, mysticism and sex dominate most television programs,' Maria said.
Broadcasting bosses at television stations in Indonesia, she said, were yet to understand the importance of children's psychological development and the regulation was unclear and inconsistent.
'It's not enough to only amend the 2012 Broadcasting Law. The government should implement it well, put away political ties with media owners and be able to embrace all related stakeholders,' Maria said, adding that the KPI should enhance their monitoring of the programs.
KPI commissioner Azimah Subagijo admitted that the KPI was still very weak in enforcing the law because the government gave it very limited power. The KPI can give warnings to stations that violate the law but has no authority to give sanctions or revoke broadcasting permits, thus making stations not fear the commission.
