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104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 2030

To provide technology for parents to control the viewing of programming

they believe is inappropriate for their children, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JULY 13, 1995

Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. MORAN, Mr. SPRATT, Mr. BEREUTER, Mr.

BURTON of Indiana, Mr. BRYANT of Texas, Mr. DICKEY, Mr. HUNTER,

Mr. WOLF, Mr. BEILENSON, Mr. BONIOR, Mr. CLEMENT, Mr. COLEMAN,

Mr. FRAZER, Mr. GEJDENSON, Mr. GORDON, Mr. HILLIARD, Ms. JACKSON-LEE, Mr. JACOBS, Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota, Mr. LAFALCE,

Ms. LOFGREN, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. LUTHER, Mr. MARTINEZ, Mr.

MCHALE, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. MILLER of California, Mr. PAYNE of Virginia, Mr. POMEROY, and Mr. UNDERWOOD) introduced the following bill;

which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

A BILL

To provide technology for parents to control the viewing

of programming they believe is inappropriate for their

children, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Parental Choice in Tel5 evision Act of 1995’’.
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1 SEC. 2. PARENTAL CHOICE IN TELEVISION PROGRAMMING.

2 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress makes the following

3 findings:

4 (1) Television influences children’s perception

5 of the values and behavior that are common and ac6 ceptable in society.

7 (2) Television station operators, cable television

8 system operators, and video programmers should fol9 low practices in connection with video programming

10 that take into consideration that television broadcast

11 and cable programming has established a uniquely

12 pervasive presence in the lives of American children.

13 (3) The average American child is exposed to

14 25 hours of television each week and some children

15 are exposed to as much as 11 hours of television a

16 day.

17 (4) Studies have shown that children exposed to

18 violent video programming at a young age have a

19 higher tendency for violent and aggressive behavior

20 later in life that children not so exposed, and that

21 children exposed to violent video programming are

22 prone to assume that acts of violence are acceptable

23 behavior.

24 (5) Children in the United States are, on aver25 age, exposed to an estimated 8,000 murders and
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1 100,000 acts of violence on television by the time the

2 child completes elementary school.

3 (6) Studies indicate that children are affected

4 by the pervasiveness and casual treatment of sexual

5 material on television, eroding the ability of parents

6 to develop responsible attitudes and behavior in their

7 children.

8 (7) Parents express grave concern over violent

9 and sexual video programming and strongly support

10 technology that would give them greater control to

11 block video programming in the home that they con12 sider harmful to their children.

13 (8) There is a compelling governmental interest

14 in empowering parents to limit the negative influ15 ences of video programming that is harmful to chil16 dren.

17 (9) Providing parents with timely information

18 about the nature of upcoming video programming

19 and with the technological tools that allow them eas20 ily to block violent, sexual, or other programming

21 that they believe harmful to their children is the

22 least restrictive and most narrowly tailored means of

23 achieving that compelling governmental interest.
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1 (b) ESTABLISHMENT OF TELEVISION RATING

2 CODE.—Section 303 of the Act (47 U.S.C. 303) is amend3 ed by adding at the end the following:

4 ‘‘(v) Prescribe—

5 ‘‘(1) on the basis of recommendations from an

6 advisory committee established by the Commission

7 that is composed of television broadcasters, television

8 programming producers, cable operators, appro9 priate public interest groups, and other interested

10 individuals from the private sector and that is fairly

11 balanced in terms of the points of view represented

12 and the functions to be performed by the committee,

13 rules to identify and rate video programming that

14 contains sexual, violent, or other material about

15 which parents should be informed before it is dis16 played to children; and

17 ‘‘(2) rules requiring the transmission by dis18 tributors of video programming of signals that con19 tain an identification of the rating (pursuant to the

20 rules prescribed under paragraph (1)) of the pro21 gramming being distributed and that permit parents

22 to block the display of video programming that they

23 have determined is inappropriate for their chil24 dren.’’.
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1 (c) REQUIREMENT FOR MANUFACTURE OF TELE2 VISIONS THAT BLOCK PROGRAMS.—Section 303 of the

3 Act, as amended by subsection (a), is further amended by

4 adding at the end the following:

5 ‘‘(w) Require, in the case of apparatus designed to

6 receive television signals that are manufactured in the

7 United States or imported for use in the United States

8 and that have a picture screen 13 inches or greater in

9 size (measured diagonally), that such apparatus—

10 ‘‘(1) be equipped with circuitry designed to en11 able viewers to block the display of channels, pro12 grams, and time slots; and

13 ‘‘(2) enable viewers to block display of all pro14 grams with a common rating.’’.

15 (d) SHIPPING OR IMPORTING OF TELEVISIONS THAT

16 BLOCK PROGRAMS.—

17 (1) REGULATIONS.—Section 330 of the Com18 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 330) is amend19 ed—

20 (A) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub21 section (d); and

22 (B) by adding after subsection (b) the fol23 lowing new subsection (c):

24 ‘‘(c)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), no per25 son shall ship in interstate commerce, manufacture, as-
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1 semble, or import from any foreign country into the

2 United States any apparatus described in section 303(w)

3 of this Act except in accordance with rules prescribed by

4 the Commission pursuant to the authority granted by that

5 section.

6 ‘‘(2) This subsection shall not apply to carriers trans7 porting apparatus referred to in paragraph (1) without

8 trading it.

9 ‘‘(3) The rules prescribed by the Commission under

10 this subsection shall provide for the oversight by the Com11 mission of the adoption of standards by industry for block12 ing technology. Such rules shall require that all such appa13 ratus be able to receive the rating signals which have been

14 transmitted by way of line 21 of the vertical blanking in15 terval and which conform to the signal and blocking speci16 fications established by industry under the supervision of

17 the Commission.

18 ‘‘(4) As new video technology is developed, the Com19 mission shall take such action as the Commission deter20 mines appropriate to ensure that blocking service contin21 ues to be available to consumers.’’.

22 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section

23 330(d) of such Act, as redesignated by subsection

24 (a)(1), is amended by striking ‘‘section 303(s), and
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1 section 303(u)’’ and inserting in lieu thereof ‘‘and

2 sections 303(s), 303(u), and 303(w)’’.

3 (e) APPLICABILITY AND EFFECTIVE DATES.—

4 (1) APPLICABILITY OF RATING PROVISION.—

5 The amendment made by subsection (b) of this sec6 tion shall take effect 1 year after the date of enact7 ment of this Act, but only if the Commission deter8 mines, in consultation with appropriate public inter9 est groups and interested individuals from the pri10 vate sector, that distributors of video programming

11 have not, by such date—

12 (A) established voluntary rules for rating

13 video programming that contains sexual, vio14 lent, or other material about which parents

15 should be informed before it is displayed to chil16 dren, and such rules are acceptable to the Com17 mission; and

18 (B) agreed voluntarily to broadcast signals

19 that contain ratings of such programming.

20 (2) EFFECTIVE DATE OF MANUFACTURING PRO21 VISION.—In prescribing regulations to implement

22 the amendment made by subsection (c), the Federal

23 Communications Commission shall, after consulta24 tion with the television manufacturing industry,

25 specify the effective date for the applicability of the
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1 requirement to the apparatus covered by such

2 amendment.

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