[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4124 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4124

  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 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 Prevention 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 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 adolescents' health and development. These 
        hearings and other public discussions about the role of media 
        in children's and adolescents' 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 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 psychological consequences of high definition interactive 
        media and other format differences for child and adolescent 
        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, parent's 
        education, and intelligence.
            (5) The early stages of childhood are a critical formative 
        period for development. 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's 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 studying 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 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 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 and adolescents 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 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 ELECTRONIC 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 section 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 arrangements with the National Academy of Sciences in 
collaboration 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 research, 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 
Internet, on youth in the following core areas of child and adolescent 
development:
            ``(1) Cognitive.--The role and impact of media use and 
        exposure in the development of children and adolescents 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 and adolescents' physical coordination, 
        diet, exercise, sleeping and eating routines, and other areas 
        of physical development.
            ``(3) Socio-behavioral.--The influence of interactive media 
        on children's and adolescents' 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.--Upon the enactment of this section and prior 
to the report deadline established by subsection (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 
exposure on--
            ``(1) cognitive and social development during infancy and 
        early childhood; and
            ``(2) the development of childhood and adolescent 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 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 development of children and adolescents with a particular 
focus on the impact of factors such as media content, format, 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 
investigations 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 containing such information as 
        the Secretary 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 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 subsection (c) to conduct research concerning the social, 
cognitive, 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 personal digital 
        assistants, used to deliver media directly 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 
        Committee 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 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 
                adolescents, and makes recommendations on how 
                scientific evidence and knowledge may be used to 
                improve the healthy developmental and learning 
                capacities of children and adolescents.
    ``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section--
            ``(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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