Summary of Recommendations

Report of the Centre de recherche en droit public (CRDP),
Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal, 1996
André H. Caron and Annie E. Jolicoeur
Republished with permission

The well-being of children can be considered to be one of the most universal concerns, and this is reflected in the institution of various measures endowing children with certain rights. In Canada, this collective desire to protect children has been demonstrated by, among other things, the establishment of a set of regulatory measures applying to mass media. For television and film, regulatory and self-regulatory mechanisms have been developed in order to limit the chances that children will be exposed to certain kinds of content which are considered inappropriate, such as scenes of violence and nudity.

 Few works have brought together the principal data on Canadian regulation and self-regulation specifically related to children and the various kinds of audiovisual content to which they are exposed. Compiling the appropriate documents regarding regulation and self-regulation in this domain is difficult since many of the measures are recorded outside of the body of state legislation and regulations, and because of the importance of the role played by self-regulation in many sectors.

 In Canada, freedom of expression enjoys a supralegal status. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is part of the Constitution, provides that all laws must be compatible with guaranteed freedoms, and may not be restricted except in so far as it is judged reasonable and justifiable in a free and democratic society.

The sources of regulation relating to the audiovisual sector are of various types. Legislation is passed by the federal Parliament, which has exclusive jurisdiction over competition and over the broadcasting domain, and by the provincial legislatures, which have jurisdiction over advertising. In virtue of various laws applicable to advertising, the proper authorities have adopted regulatory documents which are used most often to make the principles stated in the legislation more explicit.

The industry's development of voluntary standards, called self-regulation, is another major source of norms. Such voluntary rules have been written on the initiative of the various industries concerned, either to prevent the passing of more rigorous state regulations, or simply to respond to concerns expressed by the public.

The guidelines providing a framework for the activities of the audiovisual industry are simultaneously contained in legal and self-regulatory standards. It is thus important to distinguish the respective legal effects of these standards. Legal norms (laws and regulations) impose guidelines which are obligatory and for which respect is enforced by public powers. Self-regulatory standards are guidelines which companies in the industry establish for themselves and which are essentially voluntary.

Self-regulatory standards can in turn be integrated into the conditions following from state regulations, for example, when they are referred to by regulations or when respect for a self-regulatory standard becomes a condition to be fulfilled in order to obtain a licence issued by the authority responsible for regulating a given sector of the industry. In this way, originally voluntary self-regulation becomes incorporated as a standard with imperative obligations which can be enforced by state authorities.

The first part of this publication is devoted to the regulation of television. We will discuss the provisions adopted by the various organisations concerning programs for children. Such regulation and self-regulation mainly concern sexual stereotypes, violence and advertising.

In the second part, we provide an abstract of the regulations developed in the domain of children's film and video. We present a table summarizing the regulations in force in different Canadian provinces. For example, we describe the film and video classification system established by the Québec Régie du cinéma.

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