Irresponsible Again

March 31, 2009

In 2000 Channel One News promised to only advertise PG13 movies to ninth graders and up. [That was an indication of how insensitive Channel One News executives had become: They saw no problem with advertising movies filled with sex, drugs, drinking, and violence to ninth grade students.]

Channel One has since broken that promise numerous times by advertising PG13 movies on its middle school broadcast and also on its website where children of all ages can visit.

Here is the front page of Channel One News’s website today:

If a young person was looking for timely news stories this is the wrong site to come to. Channelone.com is mainly about advertising. The third story down is a teaser for a contest to promote an upcoming New Line Cinema (Warner Brothers) movie called 17 Again.

Clicking on the link sends kids to this contest page below. The rating information is grayed out and is virtually unreadable.

Channel One provides children with a movie player to see the trailer for this PG13 comedy.

Below is the rating information for this movie. "Teen partying" is a Hollywood euphemism for underage drinking. Channel One News knows this movie will help promote more teen drinking and reckless behavior, but advertised it to kids anyway.

Add another reason to remove Channel One from your school district.

Below is a scene of a teen drinking party that is in the trailer on Channel One’s web site. Channel One News has a long history of promoting movies that normal underage drinking and drug use. It’s all documented on our web site.