[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1811 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
103d CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 1811
To require new television sets to have built-in circuitry to allow
viewers to block the display of programs rated violent.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 31 (legislative day, January 25), 1994
Mr. Dorgan introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require new television sets to have built-in circuitry to allow
viewers to block the display of programs rated violent.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Television Violence Reduction
Through Parental Empowerment Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) To the fullest extent possible, parents should be
empowered with the technology to choose to block the display on
their televisions of programs they consider too violent for
their children.
(2) Violence now touches the lives of American children
more than adults. From 1982 through 1984, teenagers were the
victims of 1,800,000 violent crimes, twice the annual rate of
the adult population over age 20. According to the American
Academy of Pediatrics, one of every 8 deaths among children age
10-14 years old in 1990 was caused by a shooting. Among
teenagers and young adults, that figure rose to one of every
four deaths.
(3) Children watch an extensive amount of television. It is
estimated that a child watches approximately 22,000 hours of
television before finishing high school, almost twice the
amount of time spent in the classroom.
(4) The amount of violence on television has reached
epidemic levels. The American Psychological Association
estimates that the average child witnesses 8,000 murders and
100,000 acts of violence before finishing elementary school.
(5) Three Surgeon Generals, the National Institute of
Mental Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the American
Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and
the American Psychological Association have concurred for
nearly 20 years as to the deleterious effects of television
violence on children.
(6) Despite periodic television industry efforts to reduce
the amount of television violence, reductions in the level of
televised violence have never been long lasting.
(7) Parents who are working are unable to constantly
monitor the television viewing habits of their children.
Advanced television technologies such as channel compression
and digitization will allow the expansion of channel capacity
to levels even more unmanageable for parents who want to
protect their children from televised violence.
(8) The major broadcast networks and a large number of
cable channels have agreed to place parental advisories on
programs they consider to be too violent for children. These
parental advisories are of limited use to parents if they are
not watching television with their children.
(9) The technology currently exists to equip television
sets at a nominal cost to permit parents to block the display
of television programs they consider too violent for children.
However, this technology will only be effective (A) if all
television programmers send any adopted rating or warning
system electronically with the program signal, and (B) parents
are able to block the display not only of individual programs
but to block out automatically and simultaneously all programs
with such rating.
(10) Congress calls upon the broadcast networks,
independent television stations, cable programmers, and
satellite programmers to protect the parental right to guide
the television viewing habits of children by sending any
adopted rating or warning system electronically with the
program signal.
SEC. 3. EQUIP TELEVISIONS TO BLOCK PROGRAMS.
Section 303 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 303) is
amended by adding at the end thereof the following:
``(v) Require that (1) apparatus designed to receive television
signals be equipped with circuitry designed to enable viewers to block
the display of channels, programs, and time slots; and (2) such
apparatus enable viewers to block display of all programs with a common
rating. The requirements of this subsection shall apply when such
apparatus is manufactured in the United States or imported for use in
the United States, and its television picture screen is 13 inches or
greater in size, measured diagonally.''.
SEC. 4. SHIPPING OR IMPORTING.
(a) Regulations.--Section 330 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 330) is amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection (d); and
(2) by adding after subsection (b) the following new
section:
``(c) No person shall ship in interstate commerce, manufacture,
assemble, or import from any foreign country into the United States,
any apparatus described in section 303(v) of this Act except in
accordance with rules prescribed by the Commission pursuant to the
authority granted by that section. Such rules shall provide performance
standards for such blocking technology. Such rules shall further
require that all such apparatus be able to receive the rating signals
which have been transmitted by way of line 21 of the vertical blanking
interval and which conform to the signal and blocking specifications
established by the Commission. As new video technology is developed,
the Commission shall take such action as the Commission determines
appropriate to ensure that blocking service continues to be available
to consumers. This subsection shall not apply to carriers transporting
such apparatus without trading it.''.
(b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 330(d) of such Act, as
redesignated by this Act, is amended by striking ``section 303(s), and
section 303(u)'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``and sections 303(s),
303(u), and 303(v)''.
SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.
The amendments made by sections 3 and 4 of this Act shall take
effect one year after enactment of this Act.
SEC. 6. RULES.
The Federal Communications Commission shall promulgate rules to
implement the amendments made by this Act within 180 days after the
date of its enactment.
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