I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1855

To exempt agreements relating to voluntary guidelines governing telecast

material, movies, video games, Internet content, and music lyrics from

the applicability of the antitrust laws.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 18, 1999

Mr. SMITH of Texas (for himself, Ms. LOFGREN, and Mr. HUTCHINSON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the

Judiciary

A BILL

To exempt agreements relating to voluntary guidelines governing telecast material, movies, video games, Internet

content, and music lyrics from the applicability of the

antitrust laws.

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 ‘‘Children’s Protection

5 Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress makes the following findings:
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1 (1) Television is seen and heard in nearly every

2 United States home and is a uniquely pervasive

3 presence in the daily lives of Americans. The average

4 American home has 2.5 televisions, and a television

5 is turned on in the average American home 7 hours

6 every day.

7 (2) Television plays a particularly significant

8 role in the lives of children. Figures provided by

9 Nielsen Research show that children between the

10 ages of 2 years and 11 years spend an average of

11 21 hours in front of a television each week.

12 (3) Television has an enormous capability to in13 fluence perceptions, especially those of children, of

14 the values and behaviors that are common and ac15 ceptable in society.

16 (4) The influence of television is so great that

17 its images and messages often can be harmful to the

18 development of children. Social science research

19 amply documents a strong correlation between the

20 exposure of children to televised violence and a num21 ber of behavioral and psychological problems.

22 (5) Hundreds of studies have proven conclu23 sively that children who are consistently exposed to

24 violence on television have a higher tendency to ex-
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1 hibit violent and aggressive behavior, both as chil2 dren and later in life.

3 (6) Such studies also show that repeated expo4 sure to violent programming causes children to be5 come desensitized to and more accepting of real-life

6 violence and to grow more fearful and less trusting

7 of their surroundings.

8 (7) A growing body of social science research

9 indicates that sexual content on television can also

10 have a significant influence on the attitudes and be11 haviors of young viewers. This research suggests

12 that heavy exposure to programming with strong

13 sexual content contributes to the early commence14 ment of sexual activity among teenagers.

15 (8) Members of the National Association of

16 Broadcasters (NAB) adhered for many years to a

17 comprehensive code of conduct that was based on an

18 understanding of the influence exerted by television

19 and on a widely held sense of responsibility for using

20 that influence carefully.

21 (9) This code of conduct, the Television Code of

22 the National Association of Broadcasters, articulated

23 this sense of responsibility as follows:

24 (A) ‘‘In selecting program subjects and

25 themes, great care must be exercised to be sure
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1 that the treatment and presentation are made

2 in good faith and not for the purpose of sensa3 tionalism or to shock or exploit the audience or

4 appeal to prurient interests or morbid curi5 osity.’’.

6 (B) ‘‘Broadcasters have a special responsi7 bility toward children. Programs designed pri8 marily for children should take into account the

9 range of interests and needs of children, from

10 instructional and cultural material to a wide va11 riety of entertainment material. In their total12 ity, programs should contribute to the sound,

13 balanced development of children to help them

14 achieve a sense of the world at large and in15 formed adjustments to their society.’’.

16 (C) ‘‘Violence, physical, or psychological,

17 may only be projected in responsibly handled

18 contexts, not used exploitatively. Programs in19 volving violence present the consequences of it

20 to its victims and perpetrators. Presentation of

21 the details of violence should avoid the exces22 sive, the gratuitous and the instructional.’’.

23 (D) ‘‘The presentation of marriage, family,

24 and similarly important human relationships,

25 and material with sexual connotations, shall not
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1 be treated exploitatively or irresponsibly, but

2 with sensitivity.’’.

3 (E) ‘‘Above and beyond the requirements

4 of the law, broadcasters must consider the fam5 ily atmosphere in which many of their programs

6 are viewed. There shall be no graphic portrayal

7 of sexual acts by sight or sound. The portrayal

8 of implied sexual acts must be essential to the

9 plot and presented in a responsible and tasteful

10 manner.’’.

11 (10) The National Association of Broadcasters

12 abandoned the code of conduct in 1983 after three

13 provisions of the code restricting the sale of adver14 tising were challenged by the Department of Justice

15 on antitrust grounds and a Federal district court

16 issued a summary judgment against the National

17 Association of Broadcasters regarding one of the

18 provisions on those grounds. However, none of the

19 programming standards of the code were challenged.

20 (11) While the code of conduct was in effect, its

21 programming standards were never found to have

22 violated any antitrust law.

23 (12) Since the National Association of Broad24 casters abandoned the code of conduct, program-
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1 ming standards on broadcast and cable television

2 have deteriorated dramatically.

3 (13) In the absence of effective programming

4 standards, public concern about the impact of tele5 vision on children, and on society as a whole, has

6 risen substantially. Polls routinely show that more

7 than 80 percent of Americans are worried by the in8 creasingly graphic nature of sex, violence, and vul9 garity on television and by the amount of program10 ming that openly sanctions or glorifies criminal,

11 antisocial, and degrading behavior.

12 (14) At the urging of Congress, the television

13 industry has taken some steps to respond to public

14 concerns about programming standards and content.

15 The broadcast television industry agreed in 1992 to

16 adopt a set of voluntary guidelines designed to ‘‘pro17 scribe gratuitous or excessive portrayals of violence’’.

18 Shortly thereafter, both the broadcast and cable tele19 vision industries agreed to conduct independent

20 studies of the violent content in their programming

21 and make those reports public.

22 (15) In 1996, the television industry as a whole

23 made a commitment to develop a comprehensive rat24 ing system to label programming that may be harm-
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1 ful or inappropriate for children. That system was

2 implemented at the beginning of 1999.

3 (16) Despite these efforts to respond to public

4 concern about the impact of television on children,

5 millions of Americans, especially parents with young

6 children, remain angry and frustrated at the sinking

7 standards of television programming, the reluctance

8 of the industry to police itself, and the harmful in9 fluence of television on the well-being of the children

10 and the values of the United States.

11 (17) The Department of Justice issued a ruling

12 in 1993 indicating that additional efforts by the tele13 vision industry to develop and implement voluntary

14 programming guidelines would not violate the anti15 trust laws. The ruling states that ‘‘such activities

16 may be likened to traditional standard setting efforts

17 that do not necessarily restrain competition and may

18 have significant procompetitive benefits . . . Such

19 guidelines could serve to disseminate valuable infor20 mation on program content to both advertisers and

21 television viewers. Accurate information can enhance

22 the demand for, and increase the output of, an in23 dustry’s products or services.’’.

24 (18) The Children’s Television Act of 1990

25 (Public Law 101–437) states that television broad-
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1 casters in the United States have a clear obligation

2 to meet the educational and informational needs of

3 children.

4 (19) Several independent analyses have dem5 onstrated that the television broadcasters in the

6 United States have not fulfilled their obligations

7 under the Children’s Television Act of 1990 and

8 have not noticeably expanded the amount of edu9 cational and informational programming directed at

10 young viewers since the enactment of that Act.

11 (20) The popularity of video and personal com12 puter (PC) games is growing steadily among chil13 dren. Although most popular video and personal

14 computer games are educational or harmless in na15 ture, many of the most popular are extremely vio16 lent. One recent study by Strategic Record Research

17 found that 64 percent of teenagers played video or

18 personal computer games on a regular basis. Other

19 surveys of children as young as elementary school

20 age found that almost half of them list violent com21 puter games among their favorites.

22 (21) Violent video games often present violence

23 in a glamorized light. Game players are often cast

24 in the role of shooter, with points scored for each

25 ‘‘kill’’. Similarly, advertising for such games often
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1 touts violent content as a selling point—the more

2 graphic and extreme, the better.

3 (22) As the popularity and graphic nature of

4 such video games grows, so do their potential to neg5 atively influence impressionable children.

6 (23) Music is another extremely pervasive and

7 popular form of entertainment. American children

8 and teenagers listen to music more than any other

9 demographic group. The Journal of American Medi10 cine reported that between the 7th and 12th grades

11 the average teenager listens to 10,500 hours of rock

12 or rap music, just slightly less than the entire num13 ber of hours spent in the classroom from kinder14 garten through high school.

15 (24) Teens are among the heaviest purchasers

16 of music, and are most likely to favor music genres

17 that depict, and often appear to glamorize violence.

18 (25) Music has a powerful ability to influence

19 perceptions, attitudes, and emotional state. The use

20 of music as therapy indicates its potential to in21 crease emotional, psychological, and physical health.

22 That influence can be used for ill as well.

23 SEC. 3. PURPOSES; CONSTRUCTION.

24 (a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to per25 mit the entertainment industry—
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1 (1) to work collaboratively to respond to grow2 ing public concern about television programming,

3 movies, video games, Internet content, and music

4 lyrics, and the harmful influence of such program5 ming, movies, games, content, and lyrics on children;

6 (2) to develop a set of voluntary programming

7 guidelines similar to those contained in the Tele8 vision Code of the National Association of Broad9 casters; and

10 (3) to implement the guidelines in a manner

11 that alleviates the negative impact of television pro12 gramming, movies, video games, Internet content,

13 and music lyrics on the development of children in

14 the United States and stimulates the development

15 and broadcast of educational and informational pro16 gramming for such children.

17 (b) CONSTRUCTION.—This Act may not be construed

18 as—

19 (1) providing the Federal Government with any

20 authority to restrict television programming, movies,

21 video games, Internet content, or music lyrics that

22 is in addition to the authority to restrict such pro23 gramming, movies, games, content, or lyrics under

24 law as of the date of the enactment of this Act; or
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1 (2) approving any action of the Federal Govern2 ment to restrict such programming, movies, games,

3 content, or lyrics that is in addition to any actions

4 undertaken for that purpose by the Federal Govern5 ment under law as of such date.

6 SEC. 4. EXEMPTION OF VOLUNTARY AGREEMENTS ON

7 GUIDELINES FOR CERTAIN ENTERTAINMENT

8 MATERIAL FROM APPLICABILITY OF ANTI9 TRUST LAWS.

10 (a) EXEMPTION.—Subject to subsection (b), the anti11 trust laws shall not apply to any joint discussion, consider12 ation, review, action, or agreement by or among persons

13 in the entertainment industry for the purpose of devel14 oping and disseminating voluntary guidelines designed—

15 (1) to alleviate the negative impact of telecast

16 material, movies, video games, Internet content, and

17 music lyrics containing violence, sexual content,

18 criminal behavior, or other subjects that are not ap19 propriate for children; or

20 (2) to promote telecast material that is edu21 cational, informational, or otherwise beneficial to the

22 development of children.

23 (b) LIMITATION.—The exemption provided in sub24 section (a) shall not apply to any joint discussion, consid25 eration, review, action, or agreement which—
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1 (1) results in a boycott of any person; or

2 (2) concerns the purchase or sale of advertising,

3 including (without limitation) restrictions on the

4 number of products that may be advertised in a

5 commercial, the number of times a program may be

6 interrupted for commercials, and the number of con7 secutive commercials permitted within each interrup8 tion.

9 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

10 (1) ANTITRUST LAWS.—The term ‘‘antitrust

11 laws’’ has the meaning given such term in the first

12 section of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12) and in13 cludes section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission

14 Act (15 U.S.C. 45).

15 (2) INTERNET.—The term ‘‘Internet’’ means

16 the combination of computer facilities and electro17 magnetic transmission media, and related equipment

18 and software, comprising the interconnected world19 wide network of computer networks that employ the

20 Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol or

21 any successor protocol to transmit information.

22 (3) MOVIES.—The term ‘‘movies’’ means theat23 rical motion pictures.

24 (4) PERSON IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUS25 TRY.—The term ‘‘person in the entertainment indus-
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1 try’’ means a television network, any entity which

2 produces or distributes television programming (in3 cluding theatrical motion pictures), the National

4 Cable Television Association, the Association of

5 Independent Television Stations, Incorporated, the

6 National Association of Broadcasters, the Motion

7 Picture Association of America, each of the affiliate

8 organizations of the television networks, the Inter9 active Digital Software Association, any entity which

10 produces or distributes video games, the Recording

11 Industry Association of America, and any entity

12 which produces or distributes music, and includes

13 any individual acting on behalf of such person.

14 (5) TELECAST.—The term ‘‘telecast’’ means

15 any program broadcast by a television broadcast sta16 tion or transmitted by a cable television system.

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