II

Calendar No. 336

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 772

[Report No. 104–234]

To provide for an assessment of the violence broadcast on television, and

for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 9 (legislative day, MAY 1), 1995

Mr. DORGAN (for himself, Mrs. HUTCHISON, Mr. EXON, Mr. INOUYE, Mr.

ROCKEFELLER, Ms. MIKULSKI, Mr. JEFFORDS, Mr. MCCAIN, Mr.

CONRAD, Mr. FAIRCLOTH, and Mr. ROBB) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,

Science, and Transportation

FEBRUARY 9 (legislative day, FEBRUARY 7), 1996

Reported by Mr. PRESSLER without amendment

A BILL

To provide for an assessment of the violence broadcast on

television, 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 ‘‘Television Violence Re5 port Card Act of 1995’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

2 Congress makes the following findings:

3 (1) Three out of every four people in the United

4 States consider television programming too violent,

5 according to a 1993 poll by Electronic Media.

6 (2) Three Surgeon Generals, the National Insti7 tute of Mental Health, the Centers for Disease Con8 trol, the American Medical Association, the Amer9 ican Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psy10 chological Association have concurred for nearly 20

11 years as to the deleterious effects of televised vio12 lence on children.

13 (3) In conjunction with other societal factors

14 such as poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, and poor

15 education, the depiction of violence in all forms of

16 media contribute to violence in United States soci17 ety.

18 (4) The entertainment industry is becoming in19 creasingly sensitive to public sentiment against ex20 cessive violence in television programming. A recent

21 survey of 867 entertainment executives by U.S.

22 News and World Report and the University of Cali23 fornia in Los Angeles reveals the following:

24 (A) 59 percent of such executives consider

25 violence on television and in movies a problem.
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1 (B) Nearly 9 out of 10 such executives say

2 that violence in the media contributes to the

3 level of violence in the United States.

4 (C) 63 percent of such executives believe

5 that the entertainment media glorify violence.

6 (D) 83 percent of such executives believe

7 that the debate on excessive violence in tele8 vision programming has affected the program9 ming decisions made by the broadcast television

10 industry.

11 (5) The broadcast television and cable program12 ming industries have undertaken efforts to decrease

13 violence on television through joint standards on vio14 lence, implementation of an advance parental advi15 sory plan, and the establishment of independent ef16 forts to monitor the incidence of violence in tele17 vision programming, analyze the portrayal of vio18 lence in network television programming and in

19 other forms of video programming, and analyze the

20 trends and changes in the treatment of violent

21 themes by the media.

22 (6) The American Psychosocial Association

23 finds that approximately 1,000 studies and reports

24 on the effects of violence on television have been

25 published since 1955. The accumulated research
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1 clearly demonstrates a correlation between the view2 ing of violence on television and aggressive behavior.

3 (7) To the fullest extent possible, parents and

4 consumers should be empowered to choose which tel5 evision programs they consider appropriate for their

6 children and which programs they consider too vio7 lent.

8 SEC. 3. TELEVISION VIOLENCE REPORT CARDS.

9 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Commerce shall,

10 during fiscal years 1996 and 1997, make grants directly

11 to one or more not-for-profit entities for purposes of per12 mitting such entities to carry out in such fiscal years an

13 assessment of the violence in television programming. The

14 amount of the grants shall be sufficient to permit such

15 entities to carry out the assessment.

16 (b) ASSESSMENT.—(1) In carrying out an assessment

17 under this section, an entity shall—

18 (A) review current television programs (includ19 ing programs on broadcast television, on independ20 ent television stations, and on cable television) in

21 order to determine the nature and extent of the vio22 lence depicted in each program;

23 (B) prepare an assessment of the violence de24 picted in each program that describes and cat-
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1 egorizes the nature and extent of the violence in the

2 program; and

3 (C) take appropriate actions to make the as4 sessment available to the public.

5 (2) An entity shall carry out a review under para6 graph (1)(A) not less often than once every 90 days.

7 (3) In making an assessment public under paragraph

8 (1)(C), an entity shall identify the sponsor or sponsors of

9 each television program covered under the assessment.

10 (c) GRANT PROCEDURES.—The Secretary shall de11 termine the entities to which the Secretary shall make

12 grants under this section using competitive procedures.

13 Applications for such grants shall contain such informa14 tion as the Secretary may require to carry out the require15 ments of this Act.

16 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is

17 authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be nec18 essary to make the grants required under this section.
Calendar No. 336

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 772

[Report No. 104–234]

A BILL

To provide for an assessment of the violence

broadcast on television, and for other purposes.

FEBRUARY 9 (legislative day, FEBRUARY 7), 1996

Reported without amendment