II 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2447 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize funding for the establishment of a program on children and the media within the National 

Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the role 

and impact of electronic media in the development of children. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 19, 2004 

Mr. LIEBERMAN (for himself, Mr. BROWNBACK, Mrs. CLINTON, Mr. 

SANTORUM, and Ms. LANDRIEU) introduced the following bill; which was 

read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 

and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize funding 

for the establishment of a program on children and the 

media within the National Institute of Child Health and 

Human Development to study the role and impact of 

electronic media in the development of children. 

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 and Media 

5 Research Advancement Act’’ or the ‘‘CAMRA Act’’. 
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

2 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find3 ings: 

4 (1) Congress has recognized the important role 

5 of electronic media in children’s lives when it passed 

6 the Children’s Television Act of 1990 (Public Law 

7 101–437) and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 

8 (Public Law 104–104), both of which documented 

9 public concerns about how electronic media products 

10 influence children’s development. 

11 (2) Congress has held hearings over the past 

12 several decades to examine the impact of specific 

13 types of media products such as violent television, 

14 movies, and video games on children’s health and de15 velopment. These hearings and other public discus16 sions about the role of media in children’s develop17 ment require behavioral and social science research 

18 to inform the policy deliberations. 

19 (3) There are important gaps in our knowledge 

20 about the role of electronic media and in particular, 

21 the newer interactive digital media, in children’s 

22 healthy development. The consequences of very early 

23 screen usage by babies and toddlers on children’s 

24 cognitive growth are not yet understood, nor has a 

25 research base been established on the psychological 
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1 consequences of high definition interactive media 

2 and other format differences for child viewers. 

3 (4) Studies have shown that children who pri4 marily watch educational shows on television during 

5 their preschool years are significantly more success6 ful in school 10 years later even when critical con7 tributors to the child’s environment are factored in, 

8 including their household income, parents education, 

9 and intelligence. 

10 (5) The early stages of child development are a 

11 critical formative period. Virtually every aspect of 

12 human development is affected by the environments 

13 and experiences that one encounters during his or 

14 her early childhood years, and media exposure is an 

15 increasing part of every child’s social and physical 

16 environment. 

17 (6) As of the late 1990’s, just before the Na18 tional Institute of Child Health and Human Devel19 opment funded 5 studies on the role of sexual mes20 sages in the media on children and adolescents sex21 ual attitudes and sexual practices, a review of re22 search in this area found only 15 studies ever con23 ducted in the United States on this topic, even dur24 ing a time of growing concerns about HIV infection. 
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1 (7) In 2001, a National Academy of Sciences 

2 study group charged with finding solutions to Inter3 net pornography exposure on youth found virtually 

4 no literature about how much children and adoles5 cents were exposed to Internet pornography or how 

6 such content impacts youth. 

7 (8) In order to develop strategies that maximize 

8 the positive and minimize the negative effects of 

9 each medium on children’s physical, cognitive, social, 

10 and emotional development, it would be beneficial to 

11 develop a research program that can track the media 

12 habits of young children and their families over time 

13 using valid and reliable research methods. 

14 (9) Research about the impact of the media on 

15 children is not presently supported through one pri16 mary programmatic effort. The responsibility for di17 recting the research is distributed across disparate 

18 agencies in an uncoordinated fashion, or is over19 looked entirely. The lack of any centralized organiza20 tion for research minimizes the value of the knowl21 edge produced by individual studies. A more produc22 tive approach for generating valuable findings about 

23 the impact of the media on children would be to es24 tablish a single, well-coordinated research effort with 
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1 primary responsibility for directing the research 

2 agenda. 

3 (10) Due to the paucity of research about elec4 tronic media, educators and others interested in im5 plementing electronic media literacy initiatives do 

6 not have the evidence needed to design, implement, 

7 or assess the value of these efforts. 

8 (b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to enable 

9 the National Institute of Child Health and Human Devel10 opment to— 

11 (1) examine the role and impact of electronic 

12 media in children’s cognitive, social, emotional, phys13 ical, and behavioral development; and 

14 (2) provide for a report to Congress containing 

15 the empirical evidence and other results produced by 

16 the research funded through grants under this Act. 

17 SEC. 3. RESEARCH ON THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF ELEC18 TRONIC MEDIA IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 

19 CHILDREN. 

20 Subpart 7 of part C of title IV of the Public Health 

21 Service Act (42 U.S.C. 285g et seq.) is amended by adding 

22 at the end the following: 
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1 ‘‘SEC. 452H. RESEARCH ON THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF 

2 ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN THE DEVELOPMENT 

3 OF CHILDREN. 

4 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Institute 

5 shall enter into appropriate arrangements with the Na6 tional Academy of Science in collaboration with the Insti7 tute of Medicine to establish an independent panel of ex8 perts to review, synthesize and report on research, theory, 

9 and applications in the social, behavioral, and biological 

10 sciences and to establish research priorities regarding the 

11 positive and negative roles and impact of electronic media 

12 use, including television, motion pictures, DVD’s, inter13 active video games, and the Internet, and exposure to that 

14 content and medium on youth in the following core areas 

15 of child development: 

16 ‘‘(1) COGNITIVE.—The role and impact of 

17 media use and exposure in the development of chil18 dren within such cognitive areas as language devel19 opment, attention span, problem solving skills (such 

20 as the ability to conduct multiple tasks or 

21 ‘multitask’), visual and spatial skills, reading, and 

22 other learning abilities. 

23 ‘‘(2) PHYSICAL.—The role and impact of media 

24 use and exposure on children’s physical coordination, 

25 diet, exercise, sleeping and eating routines, and 

26 other areas of physical development. 
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1 ‘‘(3) SOCIO-BEHAVIORAL.—The influence of 

2 interactive media on childhood and family activities 

3 and peer relationships, including indoor and outdoor 

4 play time, interaction with parents, consumption 

5 habits, social relationships, aggression, prosocial be6 havior, and other patterns of development. 

7 ‘‘(b) PILOT PROJECTS.—During the first year in 

8 which the National Academy of Sciences panel is summa9 rizing the data and creating a comprehensive research 

10 agenda in the children and media area under subsection 

11 (a), the Secretary shall provide for the conduct of initial 

12 pilot projects to supplement and inform the panel in its 

13 work. Such pilot projects shall consider the role of media 

14 exposure on— 

15 ‘‘(1) cognitive and social development during in16 fancy and early childhood; and 

17 ‘‘(2) the development of childhood obesity, par18 ticularly as a function of media advertising and sed19 entary lifestyles that may co-occur with heavy media 

20 diets. 

21 ‘‘(c) RESEARCH PROGRAM.—Upon completion of the 

22 review under subsection (a), the Director of the National 

23 Institute of Child Health and Human Development shall 

24 develop and implement a program that funds additional 

25 research determined to be necessary by the panel under 
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1 subsection (a) concerning the role and impact of electronic 

2 media in the cognitive, physical, and socio-behavioral de3 velopment of children and adolescents with a particular 

4 focus on the impact of factors such as media content, for5 mat, length of exposure, age of child, and nature of paren6 tal involvement. Such program shall include extramural 

7 and intramural research and shall support collaborative ef8 forts to link such research to other National Institutes of 

9 Health research investigations on early child health and 

10 development. 

11 ‘‘(d) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible to receive 

12 a grant under this section, an entity shall— 

13 ‘‘(1) prepare and submit to the Director of the 

14 Institute an application at such time, in such man15 ner, and containing such information as the Director 

16 may require; and 

17 ‘‘(2) agree to use amounts received under the 

18 grant to carry out activities that establish or imple19 ment a research program relating to the effects of 

20 media on children pursuant to guidelines developed 

21 by the Director relating to consultations with ex22 perts in the area of study. 

23 ‘‘(e) USE OF FUNDS RELATING TO THE MEDIA’S

24 ROLE IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD.—An entity shall use 

25 amounts received under a grant under this section to con-
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1 duct research concerning the social, cognitive, emotional, 

2 physical, and behavioral development of children as related 

3 to electronic mass media, including the areas of— 

4 ‘‘(1) television; 

5 ‘‘(2) motion pictures; 

6 ‘‘(3) DVD’s; 

7 ‘‘(4) interactive video games; and 

8 ‘‘(5) the Internet. 

9 ‘‘(f) REPORTS.— 

10 ‘‘(1) REPORT TO DIRECTOR.—Not later than 12 

11 months after the date of enactment of this section, 

12 the panel under subsection (a) shall submit the re13 port required under such subsection to the Director 

14 of the Institute. 

15 ‘‘(2) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 

16 December 31, 2010, the Director of the Institute 

17 shall prepare and submit to the Committee on 

18 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Sen19 ate, and Committee on Education and the Workforce 

20 of the House of Representatives a report that— 

21 ‘‘(A) summarizes the empirical evidence 

22 and other results produced by the research 

23 under this section in a manner that can be un24 derstood by the general public; 
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1 ‘‘(B) places the evidence in context with 

2 other evidence and knowledge generated by the 

3 scientific community that address the same or 

4 related topics; and 

5 ‘‘(C) discusses the implications of the col6 lective body of scientific evidence and knowledge 

7 regarding the role and impact of the media on 

8 children, and makes recommendations on how 

9 scientific evidence and knowledge may be used 

10 to improve the healthy developmental and learn11 ing capacities of children. 

12 ‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

13 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this sec14 tion— 

15 ‘‘(1) $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2005; 

16 ‘‘(2) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2006; 

17 ‘‘(3) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2007; 

18 ‘‘(4) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2008; and 

19 ‘‘(5) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2009.’’. 

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