[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2030 Introduced in House (IH)]

  1st Session
                                H. R. 2030

To provide technology for parents to control the viewing of programming 
    they believe is inappropriate for their children, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 13, 1995

   Mr. Markey (for himself, Mr. Moran, Mr. Spratt, Mr. Bereuter, Mr. 
  Burton of Indiana, Mr. Bryant of Texas, Mr. Dickey, Mr. Hunter, Mr. 
Wolf, Mr. Beilenson, Mr. Bonior, Mr. Clement, Mr. Coleman, Mr. Frazer, 
 Mr. Gejdenson, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Hilliard, Ms. Jackson-Lee, Mr. Jacobs, 
  Mr. LaFalce, Ms. Lofgren, Mrs. Lowey, Mr. Luther, Mr. Martinez, Mr. 
McHale, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Miller of California, Mr. Payne of Virginia, 
 Mr. Pomeroy, and Mr. Underwood) introduced the following bill; which 
               was referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide technology for parents to control the viewing of programming 
    they believe is inappropriate for their children, and for other 
                               purposes.
    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Parental Choice in Television Act of 
1995''.
SEC. 2. PARENTAL CHOICE IN TELEVISION PROGRAMMING.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Television influences children's perception of the 
        values and behavior that are common and acceptable in society.
            (2) Television station operators, cable television system 
        operators, and video programmers should follow practices in 
        connection with video programming that take into consideration 
        that television broadcast and cable programming has established 
        a uniquely pervasive presence in the lives of American 
        children.
            (3) The average American child is exposed to 25 hours of 
        television each week and some children are exposed to as much 
        as 11 hours of television a day.
            (4) Studies have shown that children exposed to violent 
        video programming at a young age have a higher tendency for 
        violent and aggressive behavior later in life that children not 
        so exposed, and that children exposed to violent video 
        programming are prone to assume that acts of violence are 
        acceptable behavior.
            (5) Children in the United States are, on average, exposed 
        to an estimated 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on 
        television by the time the child completes elementary school.
            (6) Studies indicate that children are affected by the 
        pervasiveness and casual treatment of sexual material on 
        television, eroding the ability of parents to develop 
        responsible attitudes and behavior in their children.
            (7) Parents express grave concern over violent and sexual 
        video programming and strongly support technology that would 
        give them greater control to block video programming in the 
        home that they consider harmful to their children.
            (8) There is a compelling governmental interest in 
        empowering parents to limit the negative influences of video 
        programming that is harmful to children.
            (9) Providing parents with timely information about the 
        nature of upcoming video programming and with the technological 
        tools that allow them easily to block violent, sexual, or other 
        programming that they believe harmful to their children is the 
        least restrictive and most narrowly tailored means of achieving 
        that compelling governmental interest.
    (b) Establishment of Television Rating Code.--Section 303 of the 
Act (47 U.S.C. 303) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(v) Prescribe--
            ``(1) on the basis of recommendations from an advisory 
        committee established by the Commission that is composed of 
        television broadcasters, television programming producers, 
        cable operators, appropriate public interest groups, and other 
        interested individuals from the private sector and that is 
        fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and 
        the functions to be performed by the committee, rules to 
        identify and rate video programming that contains sexual, 
        violent, or other material about which parents should be 
        informed before it is displayed to children; and
            ``(2) rules requiring the transmission by distributors of 
        video programming of signals that contain an identification of 
        the rating (pursuant to the rules prescribed under paragraph 
        (1)) of the programming being distributed and that permit 
        parents to block the display of video programming that they 
        have determined is inappropriate for their children.''.
    (c) Requirement for Manufacture of Televisions That Block 
Programs.--Section 303 of the Act, as amended by subsection (a), is 
further amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(w) Require, in the case of apparatus designed to receive 
television signals that are manufactured in the United States or 
imported for use in the United States and that have a picture screen 13 
inches or greater in size (measured diagonally), that such apparatus--
            ``(1) be equipped with circuitry designed to enable viewers 
        to block the display of channels, programs, and time slots; and
            ``(2) enable viewers to block display of all programs with 
        a common rating.''.
    (d) Shipping or Importing of Televisions That Block Programs.--
            (1) Regulations.--Section 330 of the Communications Act of 
        1934 (47 U.S.C. 330) is amended--
                    (A) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection 
                (d); and
                    (B) by adding after subsection (b) the following 
                new subsection (c):
    ``(c)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), no person shall ship 
in interstate commerce, manufacture, assemble, or import from any 
foreign country into the United States any apparatus described in 
section 303(w) of this Act except in accordance with rules prescribed 
by the Commission pursuant to the authority granted by that section.
    ``(2) This subsection shall not apply to carriers transporting 
apparatus referred to in paragraph (1) without trading it.
    ``(3) The rules prescribed by the Commission under this subsection 
shall provide for the oversight by the Commission of the adoption of 
standards by industry for blocking technology. Such rules shall require 
that all such apparatus be able to receive the rating signals which 
have been transmitted by way of line 21 of the vertical blanking 
interval and which conform to the signal and blocking specifications 
established by industry under the supervision of the Commission.
    ``(4) As new video technology is developed, the Commission shall 
take such action as the Commission determines appropriate to ensure 
that blocking service continues to be available to consumers.''.
            (2) Conforming amendment.--Section 330(d) of such Act, as 
        redesignated by subsection (a)(1), is amended by striking 
        ``section 303(s), and section 303(u)'' and inserting in lieu 
        thereof ``and sections 303(s), 303(u), and 303(w)''.
    (e) Applicability and Effective Dates.--
            (1) Applicability of rating provision.--The amendment made 
        by subsection (b) of this section shall take effect 1 year 
        after the date of enactment of this Act, but only if the 
        Commission determines, in consultation with appropriate public 
        interest groups and interested individuals from the private 
        sector, that distributors of video programming have not, by 
        such date--
                    (A) established voluntary rules for rating video 
                programming that contains sexual, violent, or other 
                material about which parents should be informed before 
                it is displayed to children, and such rules are 
                acceptable to the Commission; and
                    (B) agreed voluntarily to broadcast signals that 
                contain ratings of such programming.
            (2) Effective date of manufacturing provision.--In 
        prescribing regulations to implement the amendment made by 
        subsection (c), the Federal Communications Commission shall, 
        after consultation with the television manufacturing industry, 
        specify the effective date for the applicability of the 
        requirement to the apparatus covered by such amendment.
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