As with other public health problems, the Academy also encourages active research on the precursors and correlations of firearm injuries and on intervention and prevention strategies for children, adolescents and their families. The Academy supports efforts to prevent youth crime and violence, such as recreational, mentoring and substance abuse treatment programs. The Academy supports legislative and regulatory measures to remove handguns from the environments in which children live and play, including reducing the number of handguns in private ownership, supporting restrictions to make handgun ownership more difficult, regulating handgun ammunition to reduce its destructive power, and banning certain categories of weapons, such as handguns, assault weapons and deadly air guns. The Academy supports providing parents with information and tools that will allow them to responsibly monitor what their children see on television. To encourage the creation of more quality shows for children, the Academy supports the enforcement and strengthening of the Children s Television Act of 1990, which requires broadcasters to air three hours each week of educational and informational programming for children as a condition for license renewal.
AAP policy calls for at least one hour of such programming each day.
In addition, the Academy supports efforts to reduce the romanticization of gun use and vicarious violence in the popular media. The Social Impact of Music Violence , AAP testimony by Frank Palumbo, M.D., FAAP, before the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia, November 1997. Impact of Music Lyrics and Music Videos on Children and Youth, AAP policy statement, December 1996. A Review of Issues and a Model Protocol , AAP policy statement, November 1996. Children, Channels, Choices, TV and Your Family , AAP Speaker s Kit, 1996.