Las políticas de protección de los derechos de las niñas, niños y adolescentes frente a contenidos inadecuados en los servicios audiovisuales en América Latina, a la luz de los estándares internacionales de derechos humanos. Los casos de México, Colombia, Argentina y Chile

Abstract

This doctoral thesis analyses the legal frameworks in force in four Latin American countries (Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina) in order to identify the guidelines they contain regarding the protection of children and adolescents from audiovisual content that may be inappropriate depending on their age and level of development. This thesis also analyze the institutional and social participation mechanisms that those legal frameworks provide to guarantee these rights. In each case, the research relates existing regulations to the international human rights standards that govern this matter, in order to assess their suitability, or not, to these parameters. The theoretical and methodological framework constructed for this research articulates, on the one hand, the Political Economy of Communication. This decision responds to the conviction that it is key to understand the ways in which power permeates and defines cultural industries and their development. On the other hand, Human Rights Law is the source of the obligations to guarantee rights and the prism through which to analyze all relevant regulations, both those related to the audiovisual media system and those specific to the protection of children and adolescents in each country. In addition to these structuring frameworks, there are conceptual contributions from other disciplines, such as psychology, cultural studies, sociology and anthropology, which have studied different dimensions of the relationship between children and adolescents with audiovisual proposals and their content. The thesis reveals structural deficits in the protection of the rights of children and adolescent audiences in the countries studied. These countries, due to the characteristics of the historical configuration processes of audiovisual media systems and in the context of a growing concentration of telecommunications and associated services, show a complex scenario for their reversal. The analysis of the legal frameworks and the concrete application of these norms by the regulatory institutions shows a significant gap between the formality of legal recognitions and the reality of their application. The application of these norms is, in general, the responsibility of public institutions with serious deficiencies in compliance with the standards that human rights standards impose in relation to their composition and criteria for action. Based on this overview, the thesis identifies and analyses these problematic situations, the deficits and pending challenges, and therefore includes in its conclusions a series of recommendations for political action and research. These recommendations can be taken into consideration by state institutions, decision-makers in different areas, civil society and academia, to promote transformations that seek effective protection of the rights of children and adolescents in audiovisual services, particularly in the face of the challenges that this objective presents in the digital environment.

Date of Award	14 Nov 2024
Original language	Spanish
Supervisor	Isabel Fernández Alonso (Director)