FTC: Labels Market Explicit Music to Kids
April 24 -- Films and video games may be overrun with sex and violence, but a report issued today by the Federal Trade Commission suggests record labels are the "shady" ones of the entertainment industry.
The report said the record industry is not doing enough to stop marketing violent and lewd songs to children.
The FTC's report was a follow-up study on the entertainment industry and its marketing practices after a scathing September 2000 report that accused the entire sector of aggressively marketing violent and sexually explicit films, video games, and music to kids.
FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky said that the follow-up report showed the motion picture and electronic game industries had improved their performance since last September — but he was disappointed with the recording industry.
"Unfortunately, the music industry response, at least so far, has been disappointing in its failure to institute positive reforms to its self-regulatory structure," Pitofsky said in a statement.
Last September's FTC report on the entertainment industry was ordered by former President Bill Clinton after the massacre in April 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado raised new concerns about the effect of violent entertainment on young people.
The report said all the five major recording companies placed advertising for "explicit-content" music on television programs and magazines with substantial under-17 audiences.
The music industry has been attacked for not providing ratings according to age for the sale of recordings with sexually explicit, homophobic, misogynist, and violent lyrics. Grammy Award-winning rapper Eminem has been held up as the poster boy for such lyrics.
The music industry defended itself against the criticism even before the report was released, saying in a statement overnight that it was impossible to put age restrictions on music.
"Music is unique. For the same reason that there is no rating system for books, the works of musical artists are not rated by age or content specificity — as it is virtually impossible to categorize words," said Hillary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Association of America.
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