SENATORS SHOULD URGE PARENTS, NOT NICKELODEON, TO REGULATE TELEVISION ADS
Group of Senators Push Viacom to Rid Network from Marketing Unhealthy Food to Kids

Gunlock: "If people want their kids to see less advertisements, they simply need to employ the regulator that is built in to every television–the off button."

(Washington, D.C.) –  A group of senators are urging Nickelodeon and parent company Viacom to stop airing junk food ads in the name of fighting childhood obesity. Julie Gunlock, director of the Culture of Alarmism project at the Independent Women's Forum, says just as Americans don't need bureaucrats monitoring salt intake, banning sugary beverages and toys in happy meals, or trying to do away with trans-fats, we don't need a nanny government micromanaging what food commercials run on kids' television.

Gunlock responded to the letter sent by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV):

"This kind of meddling is outrageous and insulting to parents. Americans don't need more regulations on job creating industries from patronizing Senators who can't seem to understand that parents are ultimately responsible for their child's health and television consumption–where these ads appear. If people want their kids to see less advertisements, they simply need to employ the regulator that is built in to every television–the off button."

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Independent Women's Forum is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and educational institution dedicated to expanding the conservative coalition, both by increasing the number of women who understand and value the benefits of limited government, personal liberty, and free markets, and by countering those who seek to ever expand government in the name of protecting women. 

Americans are bombarded with messages about how everyday products threaten their health and the health of their children. The media hypes the findings from scientifically-dubious studies; politicians and government regulators seize on them to promote regulations that expand their power and so that they can reassure the public they are doing something to protect Americans.  IWF is leading the fight against this Culture of Alarmism.