Standards ... maintaining TV viewing standards for our kids.
The second anniversary of the start of the Australian Communications and Media Authority's review of children's television standards has come and gone, with no clear sign of when the new rules will be released.
The authority started working on a new version of the standards, including ones that cover ads in children's TV programs, in June 2007.
It released a draft version in August 2008 and called for submissions. In March this year, authority chairman Chris Chapman said the regulator had in recent months "reviewed if there is evidence of a link between obesity and advertising", but did not say what the review had found or when the final version of the standards would be released.
Authority media manager Donald Robertson cannot give a date for the release of the standards, only that the regulator "anticipates [they] will be finalised shortly".
Industry groups such as the Australian Association of National Advertisers and Free TV Australia say the authority is still telling them the new standards will be issued mid-year.
The draft standards were widely criticised by health and consumer groups because they did not ban ads for food and beverage products during children's programs.
The authority was also criticised for saying the evidence linking advertising to obesity was "quite modest" and there was "limited research on the benefits of banning food and beverage advertising".
Complaints about the authority's position are understood to have prompted the federal government to delay the release of the new standards while it examines the broader issue of childhood obesity, considers two recently completed inquiries that included the obesity issue, and reviews calls for advertising bans by groups such as the Coalition on Food Advertising to Children.
Marketers think the release of the new children's TV standards will be part of a comprehensive government response to several issues, but they have no idea when the government will show its hand.
Food companies have tried to minimise the potential for new regulations on advertising to children by wheeling out self-regulatory codes.
Late last year the Australian Food and Grocery Council introduced the "responsible children's marketing initiative", which included a promise to advertise only products that represent "healthy dietary choices" to children aged under 12.
Seven fast-food chains launched a similar program last month, promising they would only advertise "healthier choices" to children aged under 14.
Predictably, both moves were criticised by health groups, which say the self-imposed restrictions covered only C-classified TV programs (which run between 4pm and 5pm) and will not stop the advertising of unhealthy foods to children at other times.
Article first appeared in Australian Financial Review.
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