[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2447 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2447

  To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize funding for the 
    establishment of a program on children and the media within the 
 National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the 
  role and impact of electronic media in the development of children.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 19, 2004

Mr. Lieberman (for himself, Mr. Brownback, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Santorum, 
 and Ms. Landrieu) introduced the following bill; which was read twice 
and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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 
 National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the 
  role and impact of electronic media in the development of children.

    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 and Media Research 
Advancement Act'' or the ``CAMRA Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Congress has 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 health and development. These hearings and other 
        public discussions about the role of media in children's 
        development require behavioral 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 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 psychological 
        consequences of high definition interactive media and other 
        format differences for child viewers.
            (4) Studies have shown that children who primarily watch 
        educational shows on television during their preschool years 
        are significantly more successful in school 10 years later even 
        when critical contributors to the child's environment are 
        factored in, including their household income, parents 
        education, and intelligence.
            (5) The early stages of child development are a critical 
        formative period. Virtually every aspect of human development 
        is affected by the environments and experiences that one 
        encounters during his or her early childhood years, and media 
        exposure is an increasing part of every child's social and 
        physical environment.
            (6) As of the late 1990's, just before the National 
        Institute of Child Health and Human Development funded 5 
        studies on the role of sexual messages in the media on children 
        and adolescents sexual attitudes and sexual practices, a review 
        of research in this area found only 15 studies ever conducted 
        in the United States on this topic, even during a time of 
        growing concerns about HIV infection.
            (7) In 2001, a National Academy of Sciences study group 
        charged with finding solutions to Internet pornography exposure 
        on youth found virtually no literature about how much children 
        and adolescents were exposed to Internet pornography or how 
        such content impacts youth.
            (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 is 
        not presently supported through one primary programmatic 
        effort. The responsibility for directing the research is 
        distributed across disparate agencies in an uncoordinated 
        fashion, or is overlooked entirely. The lack of any centralized 
        organization for research minimizes the value of the knowledge 
        produced by individual studies. A more productive approach for 
        generating valuable findings about the impact of the media on 
        children would be to establish a single, well-coordinated 
        research effort with primary responsibility for directing the 
        research agenda.
            (10) Due to the paucity of research about electronic media, 
        educators and others interested in implementing 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 National 
Institute of Child Health and Human Development to--
            (1) examine the role and impact of electronic media in 
        children's 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 ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN THE 
              DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN.

    Subpart 7 of part C of title IV of the Public Health Service Act 
(42 U.S.C. 285g et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 452H. RESEARCH ON THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN THE 
              DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN.

    ``(a) In General.--The Director of the Institute shall enter into 
appropriate arrangements with the National Academy of Science in 
collaboration with the Institute of Medicine to establish an 
independent panel of experts to review, synthesize and report on 
research, theory, and applications in the social, behavioral, and 
biological sciences and to establish research priorities regarding the 
positive and negative roles and impact of electronic media use, 
including television, motion pictures, DVD's, interactive video games, 
and the Internet, and exposure to that content and medium on youth in 
the following core areas of child development:
            ``(1) Cognitive.--The role and impact of media use and 
        exposure in the development of children within such cognitive 
        areas as language development, attention span, problem solving 
        skills (such as the ability to conduct multiple tasks or 
        `multitask'), visual and spatial skills, reading, and other 
        learning abilities.
            ``(2) Physical.--The role and impact of media use and 
        exposure on children's physical coordination, diet, exercise, 
        sleeping and eating routines, and other areas of physical 
        development.
            ``(3) Socio-behavioral.--The influence of interactive media 
        on childhood and family activities and peer relationships, 
        including indoor and outdoor play time, interaction with 
        parents, consumption habits, social relationships, aggression, 
        prosocial behavior, and other patterns of development.
    ``(b) Pilot Projects.--During the first year in which the National 
Academy of Sciences panel is summarizing the data and creating a 
comprehensive research agenda in the children and media area under 
subsection (a), the Secretary shall provide for the conduct of initial 
pilot projects to supplement and inform the panel in its work. Such 
pilot projects shall consider the role of media exposure on--
            ``(1) cognitive and social development during infancy and 
        early childhood; and
            ``(2) the development of childhood obesity, particularly as 
        a function of media advertising and sedentary lifestyles that 
        may co-occur with heavy media diets.
    ``(c) Research Program.--Upon completion of the review under 
subsection (a), the Director of the National Institute of Child Health 
and Human Development shall develop and implement a program that funds 
additional research determined to be necessary by the panel under 
subsection (a) concerning the role and impact of electronic media in 
the cognitive, physical, and socio-behavioral development of children 
and adolescents with a particular focus on the impact of factors such 
as media content, format, length of exposure, age of child, and nature 
of parental involvement. Such program shall include extramural and 
intramural research and shall support collaborative efforts to link 
such research to other National Institutes of Health research 
investigations on early child health and development.
    ``(d) Eligible Entities.--To be eligible to receive a grant under 
this section, an entity shall--
            ``(1) prepare and submit to the Director of the Institute 
        an application at such time, in such manner, and containing 
        such information as the Director may require; and
            ``(2) agree to use amounts received under the grant to 
        carry out activities that establish or implement a research 
        program relating to the effects of media on children pursuant 
        to guidelines developed by the Director 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.--An entity shall use amounts received under a grant under this 
section to conduct research concerning the social, cognitive, 
emotional, physical, and behavioral development of children as related 
to electronic mass media, including the areas of--
            ``(1) television;
            ``(2) motion pictures;
            ``(3) DVD's;
            ``(4) interactive video games; and
            ``(5) the Internet.
    ``(f) Reports.--
            ``(1) Report to director.--Not later than 12 months after 
        the date of enactment of this section, the panel under 
        subsection (a) shall submit the report required under such 
        subsection to the Director of the Institute.
            ``(2) Report to congress.--Not later than December 31, 
        2010, the Director of the Institute shall prepare and submit to 
        the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the 
        Senate, and Committee on Education and the Workforce 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 understood 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 collective 
                body of scientific evidence and knowledge regarding the 
                role and impact of the media on children, and makes 
                recommendations on how scientific evidence and 
                knowledge may be used to improve the healthy 
                developmental and learning capacities of children.
    ``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section--
            ``(1) $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2005;
            ``(2) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2006;
            ``(3) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2007;
            ``(4) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2008; and
            ``(5) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2009.''.
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