I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1005

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require that violent video

programming is limited to broadcast after the hours when children are

reasonably likely to comprise a substantial portion of the audience, unless

it is specifically rated on the basis of its violent content so that it

is blockable by electronic means specifically on the basis of that content.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 13, 2001

Mr. SHOWS (for himself, Mr. BLAGOJEVICH, Mr. CRAMER, Ms. SANCHEZ, Ms.

HART, Mr. LUCAS of Kentucky, and Mr. SMITH of New Jersey) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy

and Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require that

violent video programming is limited to broadcast after

the hours when children are reasonably likely to comprise

a substantial portion of the audience, unless it is specifically rated on the basis of its violent content so that

it is blockable by electronic means specifically on the

basis of that content.

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

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Children’s Protection

3 from Violent Programming Act’’.

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

5 The Congress makes the following findings:

6 (1) Television influences children’s perception

7 of the values and behavior that are common and ac8 ceptable in society.

9 (2) Broadcast television, cable television, and

10 video programming are—

11 (A) uniquely pervasive presences in the

12 lives of all American children; and

13 (B) readily accessible to all American chil14 dren.

15 (3) Violent video programming influences chil16 dren, as does indecent programming.

17 (4) There is empirical evidence that children ex18 posed to violent video programming at a young age

19 have a higher tendency to engage in violent and ag20 gressive behavior later in life than those children not

21 so exposed.

22 (5) There is empirical evidence that children ex23 posed to violent video programming have a greater

24 tendency to assume that acts of violence are accept25 able behavior and therefore to imitate such behavior.
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1 (6) There is empirical evidence that children ex2 posed to violent video programming have an in3 creased fear of becoming a victim of violence, result4 ing in increased self-protective behaviors and in5 creased mistrust of others.

6 (7) There is a compelling governmental interest

7 in limiting the negative influences of violent video

8 programming on children.

9 (8) There is a compelling governmental interest

10 in channeling programming with violent content to

11 periods of the day when children are not likely to

12 comprise a substantial portion of the television audi13 ence.

14 (9) A significant amount of violent program15 ming that is readily accessible to minors remains

16 unrated specifically for violence and therefore cannot

17 be blocked solely on the basis of its violent content.

18 (10) Age-based ratings that do not include con19 tent rating for violence do not allow parents to block

20 programming based solely on violent content thereby

21 rendering ineffective any technology-based blocking

22 mechanism designed to limit violent video program23 ming.

24 (11) The most recent study of the television

25 ratings system by the Kaiser Family Foundation
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1 concludes that 79 percent of violent programming is

2 not specifically rated for violence.

3 (12) Technology-based solutions, such as the V4 chip, may be helpful in protecting some children, but

5 cannot achieve the compelling governmental interest

6 in protecting all children from violent programming

7 when parents are only able to block programming

8 that has, in fact, been rated for violence.

9 (13) Restricting the hours when violent pro10 gramming can be shown protects the interests of

11 children whose parents are unavailable, unable to su12 pervise their children’s viewing behavior, do not have

13 the benefit of technology-based solutions, are unable

14 to afford the costs of technology-based solutions, or

15 are unable to determine the content of those shows

16 that are only subject to age-based ratings.

17 (14) After further study, pursuant to a rule18 making, the Federal Communications Commission

19 may conclude that content-based ratings and block20 ing technology do not effectively protect children

21 from the harm of violent video programming.

22 (15) If the Federal Communications Commis23 sion reaches the conclusion described in paragraph

24 (14), the channeling of violent video programming

25 will be the least restrictive means of limiting the ex-
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1 posure of children to the harmful influences of vio2 lent video programming.

3 SEC. 3. ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTIVENESS OF CURRENT

4 RATING SYSTEM FOR VIOLENCE AND EFFEC5 TIVENESS OF V-CHIP IN BLOCKING VIOLENT

6 PROGRAMMING.

7 (a) REPORT.—The Federal Communications Com8 mission shall—

9 (1) assess the effectiveness of measures to re10 quire television broadcasters and multichannel video

11 programming distributors (as defined in section

12 602(13) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

13 U.S.C. 522(13)) to rate and encode programming

14 that could be blocked by parents using the V-chip

15 undertaken under section 715 of the Communica16 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 715) and under sub17 sections (w) and (x) of section 303 of that Act (47

18 U.S.C. 303(w) and (x)) in accomplishing the pur19 poses for which they were enacted; and

20 (2) report its findings to the Committee on

21 Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the

22 United States Senate and the Committee on Com23 merce of the United States House of Representa24 tives, within 12 months after the date of enactment

25 of this Act, and annually thereafter.
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1 (b) ACTION.—If the Commission finds at any time,

2 as a result of its ongoing assessment under subsection (a),

3 that the measures referred to in subsection (a)(1) are in4 sufficiently effective, then the Commission shall complete

5 a rulemaking within 270 days after the date on which the

6 Commission makes that finding to prohibit the distribu7 tion of violent video programming during the hours when

8 children are reasonably likely to comprise a substantial

9 portion of the audience.

10 (c) DEFINITIONS.—Any term used in this section

11 that is defined in section 715 of the Communications Act

12 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 715), or in regulations under that sec13 tion, has the same meaning as when used in that section

14 or in those regulations.

15 SEC. 4. UNLAWFUL DISTRIBUTION OF VIOLENT VIDEO PRO16 GRAMMING THAT IS NOT SPECIFICALLY

17 RATED FOR VIOLENCE AND THEREFORE IS

18 NOT BLOCKABLE.

19 Title VII of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

20 U.S.C. 701 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the

21 following:
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1 ‘‘SEC. 715. UNLAWFUL DISTRIBUTION OF VIOLENT VIDEO

2 PROGRAMMING NOT SPECIFICALLY

3 BLOCKABLE BY ELECTRONIC MEANS.

4 ‘‘(a) UNLAWFUL DISTRIBUTION.—It shall be unlaw5 ful for any person to distribute to the public any violent

6 video programming not blockable by electronic means spe7 cifically on the basis of its violent content during hours

8 when children are reasonably likely to comprise a substan9 tial portion of the audience.

10 ‘‘(b) RULEMAKING PROCEEDING.—The Commission

11 shall conduct a rulemaking proceeding to implement the

12 provisions of this section and shall promulgate final regu13 lations pursuant to that proceeding not later than 9

14 months after the date of enactment of the Children’s Pro15 tection from Violent Programming Act. As part of that

16 proceeding, the Commission—

17 ‘‘(1) may exempt from the prohibition under

18 subsection (a) programming (including news pro19 grams and sporting events) whose distribution does

20 not conflict with the objective of protecting children

21 from the negative influences of violent video pro22 gramming, as that objective is reflected in the find23 ings in section 551(a) of the Telecommunications

24 Act of 1996;
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1 ‘‘(2) shall exempt premium and pay-per-view

2 cable programming and premium and pay-per-view

3 direct-to-home satellite programming; and

4 ‘‘(3) shall define the term ‘hours when children

5 are reasonably likely to comprise a substantial por6 tion of the audience’ and the term ‘violent video pro7 gramming’.

8 ‘‘(c) ENFORCEMENT.—

9 ‘‘(1) FORFEITURE PENALTY.—The Commission

10 shall impose a forfeiture penalty of not more than

11 $25,000 on any person who violates this section or

12 any regulation promulgated under it for each such

13 violation. For purposes of this paragraph, each day

14 on which such a violation occurs is a separate viola15 tion.

16 ‘‘(2) LICENSE REVOCATION.—If a person re17 peatedly violates this section or any regulation pro18 mulgated under this section, the Commission shall,

19 after notice and opportunity for hearing, revoke any

20 license issued to that person under this Act.

21 ‘‘(3) LICENSE RENEWALS.—The Commission

22 shall consider, among the elements in its review of

23 an application for renewal of a license under this

24 Act, whether the licensee has complied with this sec-
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1 tion and the regulations promulgated under this sec2 tion.

3 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section—

4 ‘‘(1) BLOCKABLE BY ELECTRONIC MEANS.—

5 The term ‘blockable by electronic means’ means

6 blockable by the feature described in section 303(x).

7 ‘‘(2) DISTRIBUTE.—The term ‘distribute’

8 means to send, transmit, retransmit, telecast, broad9 cast, or cablecast, including by wire, microwave, or

10 satellite, but it does not include the transmission, re11 transmission, or receipt of any voice, data, graphics,

12 or video telecommunications accessed through an

13 interactive computer service as defined in section

14 230(f)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

15 U.S.C. 230(f)(2)), which is not originated or trans16 mitted in the ordinary course of business by a tele17 vision broadcast station or multichannel video pro18 gramming distributor as defined in section 602(13)

19 of that Act (47 U.S.C. 522(13)).

20 ‘‘(3) VIOLENT VIDEO PROGRAMMING.—The

21 term ‘violent video programming’ as defined by the

22 Commission may include matter that is excessive or

23 gratuitous violence within the meaning of the 1992

24 Broadcast Standards for the Depiction of Violence

25 in Television Programs, December 1992.’’.
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1 SEC. 5. FTC STUDY OF MARKETING STRATEGY IMPROVE2 MENTS.

3 The Federal Trade Commission shall study the mar4 keting of violent content by the motion picture, music re5 cording, and computer and video game industries to chil6 dren, including the marketing practices improvements de7 scribed by industry representatives at the hearing held by

8 the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans9 portation on September 13, 2000. The Commission shall

10 assess the extent to which these marketing practices have

11 improved under the model of self-regulation as rec12 ommended by the Commission in its September, 2000, re13 port, Making Violent Entertainment to Children: A Re14 view of Self Regulation and Industry Practices in the Mo15 tion Picture, Music Recording and Electronic Game In16 dustries. The Commission shall report the results of the

17 study, including findings, and recommendations, if any, to

18 the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans19 portation and the House of Representatives Committee on

20 Commerce within 18 months after the date of enactment

21 of this Act.

22 SEC. 6. SEPARABILITY.

23 If any provision of this Act, or any provision of an

24 amendment made by this Act, or the application thereof

25 to particular persons or circumstances, is found to be un26 constitutional, the remainder of this Act or that amend-
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1 ment, or the application thereof to other persons or cir2 cumstances shall not be affected.

3 SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE.

4 The prohibition contained in section 715 of the Com5 munications Act of 1934 (as added by section 2 of this

6 Act) and the regulations promulgated thereunder shall

7 take effect 1 year after the regulations are adopted by the

8 Commission.

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