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104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 772

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 and Mrs. HUTCHISON) introduced the following bill;

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

Science, and Transportation

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’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress makes the following findings:

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

9 States consider television programming too violent,

10 according to a 1993 poll by Electronic Media.
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1 (2) Three Surgeon Generals, the National Insti2 tute of Mental Health, the Centers for Disease Con3 trol, the American Medical Association, the Amer4 ican Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psy5 chological Association have concurred for nearly 20

6 years as to the deleterious effects of televised vio7 lence on children.

8 (3) In conjunction with other societal factors

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

10 education, the depiction of violence in all forms of

11 media contribute to violence in United States soci12 ety.

13 (4) The entertainment industry is becoming in14 creasingly sensitive to public sentiment against ex15 cessive violence in television programming. A recent

16 survey of 867 entertainment executives by U.S.

17 News and World Report and the University of Cali18 fornia in Los Angeles reveals the following:

19 (A) 59 percent of such executives consider

20 violence on television and in movies a problem.

21 (B) Nearly 9 out of 10 such executives say

22 that violence in the media contributes to the

23 level of violence in the United States.

24 (C) 63 percent of such executives believe

25 that the entertainment media glorify violence.
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1 (D) 83 percent of such executives believe

2 that the debate on excessive violence in tele3 vision programming has affected the program4 ming decisions made by the broadcast television

5 industry.

6 (5) The broadcast television and cable program7 ming industries have undertaken efforts to decrease

8 violence on television through joint standards on vio9 lence, implementation of an advance parental advi10 sory plan, and the establishment of independent ef11 forts to monitor the incidence of violence in tele12 vision programming, analyze the portrayal of vio13 lence in network television programming and in

14 other forms of video programming, and analyze the

15 trends and changes in the treatment of violent

16 themes by the media.

17 (6) The American Psychosocial Association

18 finds that approximately 1,000 studies and reports

19 on the effects of violence on television have been

20 published since 1955. The accumulated research

21 clearly demonstrates a correlation between the view22 ing of violence on television and aggressive behavior.

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

24 consumers should be empowered to choose which tel25 evision programs they consider appropriate for their
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1 children and which programs they consider too vio2 lent.

3 SEC. 3. TELEVISION VIOLENCE REPORT CARDS.

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

5 during fiscal years 1996 and 1997, make grants directly

6 to one or more not-for-profit entities for purposes of per7 mitting such entities to carry out in such fiscal years an

8 assessment of the violence in television programming. The

9 amount of the grants shall be sufficient to permit such

10 entities to carry out the assessment.

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

12 under this section, an entity shall—

13 (A) review current television programs (includ14 ing programs on broadcast television, on independ15 ent television stations, and on cable television) in

16 order to determine the nature and extent of the vio17 lence depicted in each program;

18 (B) prepare an assessment of the violence de19 picted in each program that describes and cat20 egorizes the nature and extent of the violence in the

21 program; and

22 (C) take appropriate actions to make the as23 sessment available to the public.

24 (2) An entity shall carry out a review under para25 graph (1)(A) not less often than once every 90 days.
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1 (3) In making an assessment public under paragraph

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

3 each television program covered under the assessment.

4 (c) GRANT PROCEDURES.—The Secretary shall de5 termine the entities to which the Secretary shall make

6 grants under this section using competitive procedures.

7 Applications for such grants shall contain such informa8 tion as the Secretary may require to carry out the require9 ments of this Act.

10 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is

11 authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be nec12 essary to make the grants required under this section.

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