II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 946

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require multichannel video 

programming distributors to provide a kid-friendly tier of programming. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 28, 2005

Mr. WYDEN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require multichannel video programming distributors to provide a kidfriendly tier of programming.

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 ‘‘Kid Friendly TV Pro5 gramming Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) More than a decade ago, the American Psy9 chological Society concluded that ‘‘There is abso10 lutely no doubt that higher levels of viewing violence 
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1 on television are correlated with increased accept2 ance of aggressive attitudes and increased aggressive 

3 behavior.’’. 

4 (2) A study in 2003 found that adults who were 

5 ‘‘high TV-violence viewers’’ as children are more 

6 than three-to-four times as likely as other adults to 

7 be convicted of a crime and to use violence against 

8 their spouses and other adults. 

9 (3) Adults who watched more violent program10 ming as children were more likely to be arrested and 

11 convicted for spousal and child abuse, murder and 

12 aggravated assault. 

13 (4) Ten percent of violent acts committed by 

14 youths are attributable to their exposure to violence 

15 on television. 

16 (5) Forty percent of parents surveyed in l999 

17 in Rhode Island reported that at least one symptom 

18 of post-traumatic stress disorder occurred after their 

19 child viewed a scary event on television, and that 

20 this symptom lasted at least 1 month. 

21 (6) The average child who watches 2 hours of 

22 cartoons a day will view almost 10,000 violent acts 

23 a year. 

24 (7) Teenagers who watched television with the 

25 greatest amount of sexual content were twice as like-
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1 ly to initiate sexual intercourse the following year as 

2 those who watched television with the least amount 

3 of sexual content. 

4 (8) The Kaiser Family Foundation reported in 

5 2002 that 72 percent of teenagers think sex on tele6 vision influences ‘‘somewhat’’ or ‘‘a lot’’ the sexual 

7 behavior of their peers. 

8 (9) The Kaiser Family Foundation reported in 

9 2003 that 64 percent of all television shows have 

10 some sexual content, and that in prime time, 71 per11 cent of the top 4 broadcast network shows have 

12 some sexual content. 

13 (10) The continued exposure of children to ob14 scene, indecent, sexual, or gratuitous or excessively 

15 violent content on television is harmful to the public 

16 health and welfare of communities across the coun17 try. 

18 (11) Efforts to limit the exposure of children to 

19 television programming that contains material with 

20 obscene, indecent, violent, or sexual content, or to 

21 impose fines and penalties for the broadcast of such 

22 content, have not been successful in protecting chil23 dren from harmful content. 

24 (12) The number of homes in the United States 

25 that receive television programming via cable or sat-
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1 ellite providers is estimated to have grown to 85 per2 cent of American households, and of that percent3 age, an estimated 95 percent of the households sub4 scribe to basic or expanded basic programs. 

5 (13) The efforts to limit the exposure of chil6 dren to harmful television content have not been 

7 successful because Federal regulatory agencies have 

8 not had the authority to require cable and satellite 

9 providers to offer a child-friendly tier of program10 ming. 

11 (14) Parents need more effective ways to limit 

12 the exposure of children to television with harmful 

13 content through alternative, child-friendly tiers of 

14 programs. 

15 SEC. 3. BASIC TIER CONTENT RESTRICTIONS. 

16 Part IV of title VI of the Communications Act of 

17 1934 (47 U.S.C. 631 et seq.) is amended by adding at 

18 the end the following: 

19 ‘‘SEC. 641. KID-FRIENDLY PROGRAMMING TIER. 

20 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Within 1 months after the date 

21 of enactment of the Kid Friendly TV Programming Act 

22 of 2005, each multichannel video programming distributor 

23 shall offer a child-friendly tier of programming consisting 

24 of no fewer than 15 channels. 
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1 ‘‘(b) BLOCKING INSTRUCTIONS.—Beginning 6 

2 months after the date of enactment of the Kid Friendly 

3 TV Programming Act of 2005, each multichannel video 

4 programming distributor shall provide, as part of the 

5 monthly statement of charges, instructions for how to 

6 block any channel whose content a subscriber may wish 

7 to block. 

8 ‘‘(c) PENALTIES.—In addition to any other penalty 

9 imposed under this Act or title 18, United States Code, 

10 failure to comply with the requirements of this section is 

11 punishable by a civil penalty of up to $500,000 per day. 

12 Each day of such failure shall be considered a separate 

13 offense. 

14 ‘‘(d) CHILD-FRIENDLY DEFINED.—In this section, 

15 the term ‘child-friendly tier’ means a group of channels 

16 that do not carry programming, advertisements, or public 

17 service announcements that would be considered inappro18 priate for children due to obscene, indecent, profane, sex19 ual, or gratuitous and excessively violent content.’’.

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