Kathryn Montgomery, professor at American University

This week our guest is Kathryn Montgomery. Montgomery is a professor in the Public Communication division of the School of Communication at American University in Washington DC and heads the Center's Youth, Media and Democracy project. For 12 years, she was President of the DC-based Center for Media Education (CME), which she co-founded in 1991. During her tenure at CME, Montgomery's research, publications, and testimony helped frame the national public policy debate on a range of critical media issues. She led a coalition of child advocacy, health, and education groups in a series of successful advocacy campaigns, leaving behind a legacy of policies on behalf of children and families. They include: a Federal Communications Commission rule requiring a minimum of three hours per week of educational/informational television programming for children; a content-based ratings system for TV programs; and the first federal legislation to protect children's privacy on the Internet. Montgomery is the author of Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet, available from MIT Press.