IV

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. RES. 166

To express the sense of the House of Representatives concerning violence

on television.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 12, 1997

Mr. CASTLE (for himself, Mr. WOLF, Mr. COBURN, Mr. MCKEON, Mrs. ROUKEMA, Mr. LAFALCE, Mr. POSHARD, Mr. GILMAN, Mr. GREENWOOD, Mr.

SOLOMON, Ms. LOFGREN, and Mr. LIPINSKI) introduced the following

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

RESOLUTION

To express the sense of the House of Representatives

concerning violence on television.

1 Resolved,

2 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

3 The House of Representatives finds as follows:

4 (1) Children are exposed to significant amounts

5 of violence on television:

6 (A) The average American child spends 28

7 hours per week watching television.

8 (B) The American Psychological Associa9 tion found that the average child views up to
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1 8,000 made-for-TV murders and 100,000 acts

2 of violence by the end of grade school.

3 (C) The Center for Media and Public Af4 fairs found a 41 percent increase in television

5 violence between 1992 and 1994.

6 (D) The recent 1995–1996 National Tele7 vision Violence Study completed by Mediascope

8 found that among programs that contain vio9 lence, only 15 percent are preceded with an ad10 visory or any sort of content code, 75 percent

11 of perpetrators go unpunished in violent scenes,

12 and 1 out of 4 violent interactions on television

13 involve the use of a handgun.

14 (E) Since 1955, television characters have

15 been murdered at a rate 1,000 times higher

16 than real-world victims.

17 (2) Viewing violence harms children:

18 (A) Three national studies—the Surgeon

19 General’s Commission report (1972), the Na20 tional Institute of Mental Health 10-year fol21 lowup (1982), and the report of the American

22 Psychological Association’s Committee on

23 Media in Society (1992)—reviewed hundreds of

24 studies to arrive at the irrefutable conclusion
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1 that when children view violence their behavior

2 becomes increasingly violent.

3 (B) Studies have found that children ex4 posed to substantial media violence can experi5 ence other ill effects including desensitization

6 and apathy toward violence, distrust of others,

7 and an exaggerated sense of fear and paranoia

8 of being a victim of violence.

9 (3) Even the most vigilant and concerned par10 ents will not be able to monitor their children’s tele11 vision viewing habits at all times.

12 (4) The commitment of broadcasters is nec13 essary to address the level of violence viewed by chil14 dren and its harmful effect on them.

15 SEC. 2. SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

16 It is the sense of the House of Representatives that—

17 (1) national broadcast television networks

18 should not air violent video programming between

19 the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., the hours when

20 children are reasonably likely to comprise a substan21 tial portion of the audience; and

22 (2) legitimate news programs, documentaries,

23 educational programs, and sporting events should
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1 not contain violence in excess of what is needed to

2 convey the information intended during these hours.

Æ