Forty-seven House Republicans have asked the Federal Communications Commission to overhaul the TV Parental Guidelines so parents finally know what their children are actually watching.
“We believe that families should not be blindsided by ideological content hidden inside entertainment marketed to minors,” the lawmakers wrote in a July 13 letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
Concerned Women for America (CWA) commended the letter Monday, urging the FCC to make its ratings system disclose LGBTQ themes the same way it currently flags violence, language and sexual content.
“Parents are highly concerned about content indoctrinating their children, and our recent polling shows a majority of parents say it is crucial for TV programs to disclose sensitive themes in children’s TV programming. We are grateful to those 47 House Republican members who have stood up for children and families,” said Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America and a former FCC special advisor, in a press statement.
The push follows a CWA analysis of Netflix’s children’s slate that found 41% of G-rated series and 41% of TV-Y7-rated series contain LGBTQ+ content. On TV-Y7 alone, 24% of that content was classified as “explicit” — meaning characters openly identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or nonbinary.
None of that shows up in a program’s rating. Right now, the TV content labels alert parents to fantasy violence and mild language but say nothing about a character coming out on-screen in a show pitched to 7-year-olds.
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“We believe the FCC needs to ensure that the TV content ratings system is transparent and accurate so parents can make informed viewing decisions for their children. Right now, the TV ratings system does not alert parents to LGBTQ+ themes in their children’s TV shows. Parents should have that information, and it’s time to give them that choice,” Nance said.
The letter landed in the middle of an active FCC review of whether the TV Parental Guidelines and the Television Oversight Monitoring Board still serve parents in a streaming-first world. Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-WY), John Rose (R-TN), Sheri Biggs (R-SC) and Barry Moore (R-AL) have also introduced a resolution demanding the same transparency the Republican letter calls for.
CWA filed its own FCC comment earlier this spring. A CWA poll released with the campaign found 87% of Americans said it was “very important or somewhat important” for children’s content to carry labels disclosing sensitive themes, including gender and sexual orientation.
Movieguide® has followed the FCC review since May, when Nance urged parents to submit their own comments before the initial May 22 deadline. In that piece, she pointed out that the current TV Parental Guidelines Oversight Monitoring Board is stocked with the very studios and networks that produce and self-rate the shows in question.
The Netflix examples are not subtle. STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE: BERRY IN THE BIG CITY features a “trans berry” performing in a drag show, and the TV-Y7 series DEAD END: PARANORMAL PARK includes a teenage character announcing a trans identity to friends and family. Neither program carries any content descriptor beyond its age rating.
That gap between what a “TV-Y7” label promises and what actually shows up on-screen is why the FCC review exists in the first place — and why Movieguide® has always broken out worldview, language, violence and sexual content in every review rather than trust a network’s age tag alone. Parents who’ve watched the shift in children’s programming know it isn’t new; Movieguide® flagged the same pattern back in 2021, when previously family-friendly reboots like BLUE’S CLUES and RUGRATS began weaving in Pride storylines and drag performers.
Reply comments to the FCC’s Media Bureau were due June 22. The next move belongs to Chairman Carr.
Read Next: Should Children’s Shows Get an LGBTQ Content Warning?
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