II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 579

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 

MARCH 9, 2005

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

SANTORUM, Ms. LANDRIEU, Mr. DURBIN, and Mr. ENSIGN) 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 and adoles15 cents’ health and development. These hearings and 

16 other public discussions about the role of media in 

17 children’s and adolescents’ development require be18 havioral and social science research to inform the 

19 policy deliberations. 

20 (3) There are important gaps in our knowledge 

21 about the role of electronic media and in particular, 

22 the newer interactive digital media, in children’s and 

23 adolescents’ healthy development. The consequences 

24 of very early screen usage by babies and toddlers on 

25 children’s cognitive growth are not yet understood, 

26 nor has a research base been established on the psy-
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1 chological consequences of high definition interactive 

2 media and other format differences for child and ad3 olescent viewers. 

4 (4) Studies have shown that children who pri5 marily watch educational shows on television during 

6 their preschool years are significantly more success7 ful in school 10 years later even when critical con8 tributors to the child’s environment are factored in, 

9 including their household income, parent’s education, 

10 and intelligence. 

11 (5) The early stages of childhood are a critical 

12 formative period for development. Virtually every as13 pect of human development is affected by the envi14 ronments and experiences that one encounters dur15 ing his or her early childhood years, and media expo16 sure is an increasing part of every child’s social and 

17 physical environment. 

18 (6) As of the late 1990’s, just before the Na19 tional Institute of Child Health and Human Devel20 opment funded 5 studies on the role of sexual mes21 sages in the media on children’s and adolescents’ 

22 sexual attitudes and sexual practices, a review of re23 search in this area found only 15 studies ever con24 ducted in the United States on this topic, even dur25 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 studying Internet pornog3 raphy exposure on youth found virtually no lit4 erature about how much children and adolescents 

5 were exposed to Internet pornography or how such 

6 content impacts their development. 

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 and adolescents is not presently supported 

16 through one primary programmatic effort. The re17 sponsibility for directing the research is distributed 

18 across disparate agencies in an uncoordinated fash19 ion, or is overlooked entirely. The lack of any cen20 tralized organization for research minimizes the 

21 value of the knowledge produced by individual stud22 ies. A more productive approach for generating valu23 able findings about the impact of the media on chil24 dren and adolescents would be to establish a single, 
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1 well-coordinated research effort with primary respon2 sibility for directing the research 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 and adolescents’ cognitive, social, 

13 emotional, physical, 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 AND ADOLESCENTS. 

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 AND ADOLESCENTS. 

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 and adolescent development: 

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

17 media use and exposure in the development of chil18 dren and adolescents within such cognitive areas as 

19 language development, attention span, problem solv20 ing skills (such as the ability to conduct multiple 

21 tasks or ‘multitask’), visual and spatial skills, read22 ing, and other learning abilities. 

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

24 use and exposure on children’s and adolescent’s 

25 physical coordination, diet, exercise, sleeping and 
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1 eating routines, and other areas of physical develop2 ment. 

3 ‘‘(3) SOCIO-BEHAVIORAL.—The influence of 

4 interactive media on children’s and adolescent’s fam5 ily activities and peer relationships, including indoor 

6 and outdoor play time, interaction with parents, con7 sumption habits, social relationships, aggression, 

8 prosocial behavior, and other patterns of develop9 ment. 

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

11 which the National Academy of Sciences panel is summa12 rizing the data and creating a comprehensive research 

13 agenda in the children and adolescents and media area 

14 under subsection (a), the Secretary shall provide for the 

15 conduct of initial pilot projects to supplement and inform 

16 the panel in its work. Such pilot projects shall consider 

17 the role of media exposure on—

18 ‘‘(1) cognitive and social development during in19 fancy and early childhood; and 

20 ‘‘(2) the development of childhood and adoles21 cent obesity, particularly as a function of media ad22 vertising and sedentary lifestyles that may co-occur 

23 with heavy media diets. 

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

25 review under subsection (a), the Director of the National 
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1 Institute of Child Health and Human Development shall 

2 develop and implement a program that funds additional 

3 research determined to be necessary by the panel under 

4 subsection (a) concerning the role and impact of electronic 

5 media in the cognitive, physical, and socio-behavioral de6 velopment of children and adolescents with a particular 

7 focus on the impact of factors such as media content, for8 mat, length of exposure, age of child or adolescent, and 

9 nature of parental involvement. Such program shall in10 clude extramural and intramural research and shall sup11 port collaborative efforts to link such research to other 

12 National Institutes of Health research investigations on 

13 early child health and development. 

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

15 a grant under this section, an entity shall—

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

17 Institute an application at such time, in such man18 ner, and containing such information as the Director 

19 may require; and 

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

21 grant to carry out activities that establish or imple22 ment a research program relating to the effects of 

23 media on children and adolescents pursuant to 

24 guidelines developed by the Director relating to con25 sultations with experts in the area of study. 
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1 ‘‘(e) USE OF FUNDS RELATING TO THE MEDIA’S

2 ROLE IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD OR ADOLESCENT.—An 

3 entity shall use amounts received under a grant under this 

4 section to conduct research concerning the social, cog5 nitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral development of 

6 children or adolescents as related to electronic mass 

7 media, including the areas of—

8 ‘‘(1) television; 

9 ‘‘(2) motion pictures; 

10 ‘‘(3) DVD’s; 

11 ‘‘(4) interactive video games; 

12 ‘‘(5) the Internet; and 

13 ‘‘(6) cell phones. 

14 ‘‘(f) REPORTS.—

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

16 months after the date of enactment of this section, 

17 the panel under subsection (a) shall submit the re18 port required under such subsection to the Director 

19 of the Institute. 

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

21 December 31, 2011, the Director of the Institute 

22 shall prepare and submit to the Committee on 

23 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Sen24 ate, and Committee on Education and the Workforce 

25 of the House of Representatives a report that—
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1 ‘‘(A) summarizes the empirical evidence 

2 and other results produced by the research 

3 under this section in a manner that can be un4 derstood by the general public; 

5 ‘‘(B) places the evidence in context with 

6 other evidence and knowledge generated by the 

7 scientific community that address the same or 

8 related topics; and 

9 ‘‘(C) discusses the implications of the col10 lective body of scientific evidence and knowledge 

11 regarding the role and impact of the media on 

12 children and adolescents, and makes rec13 ommendations on how scientific evidence and 

14 knowledge may be used to improve the healthy 

15 developmental and learning capacities of chil16 dren and adolescents. 

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

18 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this sec19 tion—

20 ‘‘(1) $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2006; 

21 ‘‘(2) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2007; 

22 ‘‘(3) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2008; 

23 ‘‘(4) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2009; and 

24 ‘‘(5) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2010.’’.

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