I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4124 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize funding for the estab-
lishment of a program on children and the media within the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention to study the role and impact of 
electronic media in the development of children. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 24, 2005 
Mr. MARKEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
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 Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention to study the role and impact of electronic media 
in the development of children. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Children and Media 
Research Advancement Act’’ or the ‘‘CAMRA Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings: 
(1) Congress recognized the important role of 
electronic media in children’s lives when it passed 
the Children’s Television Act of 1990 (Public Law 
101–437) and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 
(Public Law 104–104), both of which documented 
public concerns about how electronic media products 
influence children’s development. 
(2) Congress has held hearings over the past 
several decades to examine the impact of specific 
types of media products such as violent television, 
movies, and video games on children’s and adoles-
cents’ health and development. These hearings and 
other public discussions about the role of media in 
children’s and adolescents’ development require be-
havioral and social science research to inform the 
policy deliberations. 
(3) There are important gaps in our knowledge 
about the role of electronic media and in particular, 
the newer interactive digital media, in children’s and 
adolescents’ healthy development. The consequences 
of very early screen usage by babies and toddlers on 
children’s cognitive growth are not yet understood, 
nor has a research base been established on the psy-
chological consequences of high definition interactive 
media and other format differences for child and ad-
olescent viewers. 
(4) Studies have shown that children who pri-
marily watch educational shows on television during 
their preschool years are significantly more success-
ful in school 10 years later even when critical con-
tributors to the child’s environment are factored in, 
including their household income, parent’s education, 
and intelligence. 
(5) The early stages of childhood are a critical 
formative period for development. Virtually every as-
pect of human development is affected by the envi-
ronments and experiences that one encounters dur-
ing his or her early childhood years, and media expo-
sure is an increasing part of every child’s social and 
physical environment. 
(6) As of the late 1990’s, just before the Na-
tional Institute of Child Health and Human Devel-
opment funded 5 studies on the role of sexual mes-
sages in the media on children’s and adolescents’ 
sexual attitudes and sexual practices, a review of re-
search in this area found only 15 studies ever con-
ducted in the United States on this topic, even dur-
ing a time of growing concerns about HIV infection.
(7) In 2001, a National Academy of Sciences 
study group charged with studying Internet pornog-
raphy exposure on youth found virtually no lit-
erature about how much children and adolescents 
were exposed to Internet pornography or how such 
content impacts their development. 
(8) In order to develop strategies that maximize 
the positive and minimize the negative effects of 
each medium on children’s physical, cognitive, social, 
and emotional development, it would be beneficial to 
develop a research program that can track the media 
habits of young children and their families over time 
using valid and reliable research methods. 
(9) Research about the impact of the media on 
children and adolescents is not presently supported 
through one primary programmatic effort. The re-
sponsibility for directing the research is distributed 
across disparate agencies in an uncoordinated fash-
ion, or is overlooked entirely. The lack of any cen-
tralized organization for research minimizes the 
value of the knowledge produced by individual stud-
ies. A more productive approach for generating valu-
able findings about the impact of the media on chil-
dren and adolescents would be to establish a single,
well-coordinated research effort with primary respon-
sibility for directing the research agenda. 
(10) Due to the paucity of research about elec-
tronic media, educators and others interested in im-
plementing electronic media literacy initiatives do 
not have the evidence needed to design, implement, 
or assess the value of these efforts. 
(b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to enable 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to— 
(1) examine the role and impact of electronic 
media in children’s and adolescents’ cognitive, social, 
emotional, physical, and behavioral development; and 
(2) provide for a report to Congress containing 
the empirical evidence and other results produced by 
the research funded through grants under this Act. 
SEC. 3. RESEARCH ON THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF ELEC-
TRONIC MEDIA IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS. 
Part B of title III of the Public Health Service Act 
(42 U.S.C. 243 et seq.) is amended by inserting after sec-
tion 317S the following:
‘‘SEC. 317T. RESEARCH ON THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF 
ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN THE DEVELOPMENT 
OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 months after 
the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary, 
acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, shall enter into appropriate ar-
rangements with the National Academy of Sciences in col-
laboration with the Institute of Medicine to establish an 
independent panel of experts (in this section referred to 
as the ‘panel’) to review, synthesize, and report on re-
search, theory, and applications in the social, behavioral, 
and biological sciences and to establish research priorities 
regarding the positive and negative impact of the content 
and use of electronic media, including television, motion 
pictures, DVD’s, interactive video games, and the Inter-
net, on youth in the following core areas of child and ado-
lescent development: 
‘‘(1) COGNITIVE.—The role and impact of 
media use and exposure in the development of chil-
dren and adolescents within such cognitive areas as 
language development, attention span, problem solv-
ing skills (such as the ability to conduct multiple 
tasks or ‘multitask’), visual and spatial skills, read-
ing, and other learning abilities.
‘‘(2) PHYSICAL.—The role and impact of media 
use and exposure on children’s and adolescents’ 
physical coordination, diet, exercise, sleeping and 
eating routines, and other areas of physical develop-
ment. 
‘‘(3) SOCIO-BEHAVIORAL.—The influence of 
interactive media on children’s and adolescents’ fam-
ily activities and peer relationships, including indoor 
and outdoor play time, interaction with parents, con-
sumption habits, social relationships, aggression, 
prosocial behavior, and other patterns of develop-
ment. 
‘‘(b) PILOT PROJECTS.—Upon the enactment of this 
section and prior to the report deadline established by sub-
section (f)(1), the Secretary shall initiate and support pilot 
projects to supplement and inform the panel in its work. 
Such pilot projects shall consider the role of media expo-
sure on— 
‘‘(1) cognitive and social development during in-
fancy and early childhood; and 
‘‘(2) the development of childhood and adoles-
cent obesity, particularly as a function of media ad-
vertising and sedentary lifestyles that may co-occur 
with heavy media diets.
‘‘(c) RESEARCH PROGRAM.—Upon completion of the 
review under subsection (a), the Secretary shall conduct 
or support additional research determined to be necessary 
by the panel concerning the role and impact of electronic 
media in the cognitive, physical, and socio-behavioral de-
velopment of children and adolescents with a particular 
focus on the impact of factors such as media content, for-
mat, length of exposure, the age of the child or adolescent, 
and the nature of parental involvement. Such program 
shall include extramural and intramural research and shall 
support collaborative efforts to link such research to other 
Department of Health and Human Services research in-
vestigations on early child health and development. 
‘‘(d) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible to receive 
a grant under subsection (b) or (c), an entity shall— 
‘‘(1) prepare and submit to the Secretary an 
application at such time, in such manner, and con-
taining such information as the Secretary may re-
quire; and 
‘‘(2) agree to use amounts received under the 
grant to carry out activities that establish or imple-
ment a research program relating to the effects of 
media on children and adolescents pursuant to such 
guidelines as the Secretary may require relating to 
consultations with experts in the area of study.
‘‘(e) USE OF FUNDS RELATING TO THE MEDIA’S 
ROLE IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD OR ADOLESCENT.—An 
entity shall use amounts received under a grant under sub-
section (c) to conduct research concerning the social, cog-
nitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral development of 
children or adolescents as related to electronic mass 
media, including the areas of— 
‘‘(1) television; 
‘‘(2) motion pictures; 
‘‘(3) DVD’s; 
‘‘(4) interactive video games; 
‘‘(5) the Internet; 
‘‘(6) cell phones; and 
‘‘(7) any other electronic mass media, including 
portable wireless communications devices and per-
sonal digital assistants, used to deliver media di-
rectly to children and adolescents. 
‘‘(f) REPORTS.— 
‘‘(1) REPORT TO DIRECTOR.—Not later than 12 
months after the date of the establishment of the 
panel pursuant to subsection (a), the panel shall 
submit the report required under such subsection to 
the Secretary. 
‘‘(2) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 
December 31, 2011, the Secretary shall prepare and
submit to the Committee on Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 
Representatives a report that— 
‘‘(A) summarizes the empirical evidence 
and other results produced by the research 
under this section in a manner that can be un-
derstood by the general public; 
‘‘(B) places the evidence in context with 
other evidence and knowledge generated by the 
scientific community that address the same or 
related topics; and 
‘‘(C) discusses the implications of the col-
lective body of scientific evidence and knowledge 
regarding the role and impact of the media on 
children and adolescents, and makes rec-
ommendations on how scientific evidence and 
knowledge may be used to improve the healthy 
developmental and learning capacities of chil-
dren and adolescents. 
‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this sec-
tion— 
‘‘(1) $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2006; 
‘‘(2) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2007;
‘‘(3) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2008; 
‘‘(4) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2009; and 
‘‘(5) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2010.’’. 
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