A quantitative approach to the television programs aimed to child and youth audience in Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to point out the existing failure of the Broadcasting Law for commercial television providers in Brazil in order to protect the rights of children and adolescents in the provision and production of educational children’s programming. The daily time spent by children watching television in Brazil is significant, being television consumption the main leisure activity in their allocation of time. In that scenario, 75.4% of the Brazilian child population recognizes the existence of inappropriate television content which they should not be watching. Associated with this situation is the aggravating of free access to the new technologies that enable children and adolescents to easily select the schedule on television and other devices. Most of researches in the communication sector on reception and children and adolescent’s television consumption habits in recent decades especially conclude the negative effects of a non-selected and non-accompanied television consumption by adults, as well as conclude the detrimental effects that an unselected television programming diet can cause on the behavior of children and adolescents. We present data from a quantitative empirical research, conducted by the technique of content analysis on main television providers of the states of São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Salvador de Bahia in Brazil. The results indicate the existence of a business ideology that would mark, over any social commitment, the massive scheduling of programs aimed for adult audiences and an insignificant scheduling and production of programming contents oriented and/or appropriate for the fringes aimed to children audience.