[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1855 Introduced in House (IH)]
106th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1855
To exempt agreements relating to voluntary guidelines governing
telecast material, movies, video games, Internet content, and music
lyrics from the applicability of the antitrust laws.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 18, 1999
Mr. Smith of Texas (for himself, Ms. Lofgren, and Mr. Hutchinson)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To exempt agreements relating to voluntary guidelines governing
telecast material, movies, video games, Internet content, and music
lyrics from the applicability of the antitrust laws.
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 ``Children's Protection Act of 1999''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Television is seen and heard in nearly every United
States home and is a uniquely pervasive presence in the daily
lives of Americans. The average American home has 2.5
televisions, and a television is turned on in the average
American home 7 hours every day.
(2) Television plays a particularly significant role in the
lives of children. Figures provided by Nielsen Research show
that children between the ages of 2 years and 11 years spend an
average of 21 hours in front of a television each week.
(3) Television has an enormous capability to influence
perceptions, especially those of children, of the values and
behaviors that are common and acceptable in society.
(4) The influence of television is so great that its images
and messages often can be harmful to the development of
children. Social science research amply documents a strong
correlation between the exposure of children to televised
violence and a number of behavioral and psychological problems.
(5) Hundreds of studies have proven conclusively that
children who are consistently exposed to violence on television
have a higher tendency to exhibit violent and aggressive
behavior, both as children and later in life.
(6) Such studies also show that repeated exposure to
violent programming causes children to become desensitized to
and more accepting of real-life violence and to grow more
fearful and less trusting of their surroundings.
(7) A growing body of social science research indicates
that sexual content on television can also have a significant
influence on the attitudes and behaviors of young viewers. This
research suggests that heavy exposure to programming with
strong sexual content contributes to the early commencement of
sexual activity among teenagers.
(8) Members of the National Association of Broadcasters
(NAB) adhered for many years to a comprehensive code of conduct
that was based on an understanding of the influence exerted by
television and on a widely held sense of responsibility for
using that influence carefully.
(9) This code of conduct, the Television Code of the
National Association of Broadcasters, articulated this sense of
responsibility as follows:
(A) ``In selecting program subjects and themes,
great care must be exercised to be sure that the
treatment and presentation are made in good faith and
not for the purpose of sensationalism or to shock or
exploit the audience or appeal to prurient interests or
morbid curiosity.''.
(B) ``Broadcasters have a special responsibility
toward children. Programs designed primarily for
children should take into account the range of
interests and needs of children, from instructional and
cultural material to a wide variety of entertainment
material. In their totality, programs should contribute
to the sound, balanced development of children to help
them achieve a sense of the world at large and informed
adjustments to their society.''.
(C) ``Violence, physical, or psychological, may
only be projected in responsibly handled contexts, not
used exploitatively. Programs involving violence
present the consequences of it to its victims and
perpetrators. Presentation of the details of violence
should avoid the excessive, the gratuitous and the
instructional.''.
(D) ``The presentation of marriage, family, and
similarly important human relationships, and material
with sexual connotations, shall not be treated
exploitatively or irresponsibly, but with sensitivity.''.
(E) ``Above and beyond the requirements of the law,
broadcasters must consider the family atmosphere in
which many of their programs are viewed. There shall be
no graphic portrayal of sexual acts by sight or sound.
The portrayal of implied sexual acts must be essential
to the plot and presented in a responsible and tasteful
manner.''.
(10) The National Association of Broadcasters abandoned the
code of conduct in 1983 after three provisions of the code
restricting the sale of advertising were challenged by the
Department of Justice on antitrust grounds and a Federal
district court issued a summary judgment against the National
Association of Broadcasters regarding one of the provisions on
those grounds. However, none of the programming standards of
the code were challenged.
(11) While the code of conduct was in effect, its
programming standards were never found to have violated any
antitrust law.
(12) Since the National Association of Broadcasters
abandoned the code of conduct, programming standards on
broadcast and cable television have deteriorated dramatically.
(13) In the absence of effective programming standards,
public concern about the impact of television on children, and
on society as a whole, has risen substantially. Polls routinely
show that more than 80 percent of Americans are worried by the
increasingly graphic nature of sex, violence, and vulgarity on
television and by the amount of programming that openly
sanctions or glorifies criminal, antisocial, and degrading
behavior.
(14) At the urging of Congress, the television industry has
taken some steps to respond to public concerns about
programming standards and content. The broadcast television
industry agreed in 1992 to adopt a set of voluntary guidelines
designed to ``proscribe gratuitous or excessive portrayals of
violence''. Shortly thereafter, both the broadcast and cable
television industries agreed to conduct independent studies of
the violent content in their programming and make those reports
public.
(15) In 1996, the television industry as a whole made a
commitment to develop a comprehensive rating system to label
programming that may be harmful or inappropriate for children.
That system was implemented at the beginning of 1999.
(16) Despite these efforts to respond to public concern
about the impact of television on children, millions of
Americans, especially parents with young children, remain angry
and frustrated at the sinking standards of television
programming, the reluctance of the industry to police itself,
and the harmful influence of television on the well-being of
the children and the values of the United States.
(17) The Department of Justice issued a ruling in 1993
indicating that additional efforts by the television industry
to develop and implement voluntary programming guidelines would
not violate the antitrust laws. The ruling states that ``such
activities may be likened to traditional standard setting
efforts that do not necessarily restrain competition and may
have significant procompetitive benefits . . . Such guidelines
could serve to disseminate valuable information on program
content to both advertisers and television viewers. Accurate
information can enhance the demand for, and increase the output
of, an industry's products or services.''.
(18) The Children's Television Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-
437) states that television broadcasters in the United States
have a clear obligation to meet the educational and
informational needs of children.
(19) Several independent analyses have demonstrated that
the television broadcasters in the United States have not
fulfilled their obligations under the Children's Television Act
of 1990 and have not noticeably expanded the amount of
educational and informational programming directed at young
viewers since the enactment of that Act.
(20) The popularity of video and personal computer (PC)
games is growing steadily among children. Although most popular
video and personal computer games are educational or harmless
in nature, many of the most popular are extremely violent. One
recent study by Strategic Record Research found that 64 percent
of teenagers played video or personal computer games on a
regular basis. Other surveys of children as young as elementary
school age found that almost half of them list violent computer
games among their favorites.
(21) Violent video games often present violence in a
glamorized light. Game players are often cast in the role of
shooter, with points scored for each ``kill''. Similarly,
advertising for such games often touts violent content as a
selling point--the more graphic and extreme, the better.
(22) As the popularity and graphic nature of such video
games grows, so do their potential to negatively influence
impressionable children.
(23) Music is another extremely pervasive and popular form
of entertainment. American children and teenagers listen to
music more than any other demographic group. The Journal of
American Medicine reported that between the 7th and 12th grades
the average teenager listens to 10,500 hours of rock or rap
music, just slightly less than the entire number of hours spent
in the classroom from kindergarten through high school.
(24) Teens are among the heaviest purchasers of music, and
are most likely to favor music genres that depict, and often
appear to glamorize violence.
(25) Music has a powerful ability to influence perceptions,
attitudes, and emotional state. The use of music as therapy
indicates its potential to increase emotional, psychological,
and physical health. That influence can be used for ill as
well.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES; CONSTRUCTION.
(a) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are to permit the
entertainment industry--
(1) to work collaboratively to respond to growing public
concern about television programming, movies, video games,
Internet content, and music lyrics, and the harmful influence
of such programming, movies, games, content, and lyrics on
children;
(2) to develop a set of voluntary programming guidelines
similar to those contained in the Television Code of the
National Association of Broadcasters; and
(3) to implement the guidelines in a manner that alleviates
the negative impact of television programming, movies, video
games, Internet content, and music lyrics on the development of
children in the United States and stimulates the development
and broadcast of educational and informational programming for
such children.
(b) Construction.--This Act may not be construed as--
(1) providing the Federal Government with any authority to
restrict television programming, movies, video games, Internet
content, or music lyrics that is in addition to the authority
to restrict such programming, movies, games, content, or lyrics
under law as of the date of the enactment of this Act; or
(2) approving any action of the Federal Government to
restrict such programming, movies, games, content, or lyrics
that is in addition to any actions undertaken for that purpose
by the Federal Government under law as of such date.
SEC. 4. EXEMPTION OF VOLUNTARY AGREEMENTS ON GUIDELINES FOR CERTAIN
ENTERTAINMENT MATERIAL FROM APPLICABILITY OF ANTITRUST
LAWS.
(a) Exemption.--Subject to subsection (b), the antitrust laws shall
not apply to any joint discussion, consideration, review, action, or
agreement by or among persons in the entertainment industry for the
purpose of developing and disseminating voluntary guidelines designed--
(1) to alleviate the negative impact of telecast material,
movies, video games, Internet content, and music lyrics
containing violence, sexual content, criminal behavior, or
other subjects that are not appropriate for children; or
(2) to promote telecast material that is educational,
informational, or otherwise beneficial to the development of
children.
(b) Limitation.--The exemption provided in subsection (a) shall not
apply to any joint discussion, consideration, review, action, or
agreement which--
(1) results in a boycott of any person; or
(2) concerns the purchase or sale of advertising, including
(without limitation) restrictions on the number of products
that may be advertised in a commercial, the number of times a
program may be interrupted for commercials, and the number of
consecutive commercials permitted within each interruption.
(c) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Antitrust laws.--The term ``antitrust laws'' has the
meaning given such term in the first section of the Clayton Act
(15 U.S.C. 12) and includes section 5 of the Federal Trade
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45).
(2) Internet.--The term ``Internet'' means the combination
of computer facilities and electromagnetic transmission media,
and related equipment and software, comprising the
interconnected worldwide network of computer networks that
employ the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol or
any successor protocol to transmit information.
(3) Movies.--The term ``movies'' means theatrical motion
pictures.
(4) Person in the entertainment industry.--The term
``person in the entertainment industry'' means a television
network, any entity which produces or distributes television
programming (including theatrical motion pictures), the
National Cable Television Association, the Association of
Independent Television Stations, Incorporated, the National
Association of Broadcasters, the Motion Picture Association of
America, each of the affiliate organizations of the television
networks, the Interactive Digital Software Association, any
entity which produces or distributes video games, the Recording
Industry Association of America, and any entity which produces
or distributes music, and includes any individual acting on
behalf of such person.
(5) Telecast.--The term ``telecast'' means any program
broadcast by a television broadcast station or transmitted by a
cable television system.
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