[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 946 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 946

 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require multichannel video 
programming distributors to provide a kid-friendly tier of programming.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 28, 2005

   Mr. Wyden introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require multichannel video 
programming distributors to provide a kid-friendly tier of programming.

    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 ``Kid Friendly TV Programming Act of 
2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) More than a decade ago, the American Psychological 
        Society concluded that ``There is absolutely no doubt that 
        higher levels of viewing violence on television are correlated 
        with increased acceptance of aggressive attitudes and increased 
        aggressive behavior.''.
            (2) A study in 2003 found that adults who were ``high TV-
        violence viewers'' as children are more than three-to-four 
        times as likely as other adults to be convicted of a crime and 
        to use violence against their spouses and other adults.
            (3) Adults who watched more violent programming as children 
        were more likely to be arrested and convicted for spousal and 
        child abuse, murder and aggravated assault.
            (4) Ten percent of violent acts committed by youths are 
        attributable to their exposure to violence on television.
            (5) Forty percent of parents surveyed in l999 in Rhode 
        Island reported that at least one symptom of post-traumatic 
        stress disorder occurred after their child viewed a scary event 
        on television, and that this symptom lasted at least 1 month.
            (6) The average child who watches 2 hours of cartoons a day 
        will view almost 10,000 violent acts a year.
            (7) Teenagers who watched television with the greatest 
        amount of sexual content were twice as likely to initiate 
        sexual intercourse the following year as those who watched 
        television with the least amount of sexual content.
            (8) The Kaiser Family Foundation reported in 2002 that 72 
        percent of teenagers think sex on television influences 
        ``somewhat'' or ``a lot'' the sexual behavior of their peers.
            (9) The Kaiser Family Foundation reported in 2003 that 64 
        percent of all television shows have some sexual content, and 
        that in prime time, 71 percent of the top 4 broadcast network 
        shows have some sexual content.
            (10) The continued exposure of children to obscene, 
        indecent, sexual, or gratuitous or excessively violent content 
        on television is harmful to the public health and welfare of 
        communities across the country.
            (11) Efforts to limit the exposure of children to 
        television programming that contains material with obscene, 
        indecent, violent, or sexual content, or to impose fines and 
        penalties for the broadcast of such content, have not been 
        successful in protecting children from harmful content.
            (12) The number of homes in the United States that receive 
        television programming via cable or satellite providers is 
        estimated to have grown to 85 percent of American households, 
        and of that percentage, an estimated 95 percent of the 
        households subscribe to basic or expanded basic programs.
            (13) The efforts to limit the exposure of children to 
        harmful television content have not been successful because 
        Federal regulatory agencies have not had the authority to 
        require cable and satellite providers to offer a child-friendly 
        tier of programming.
            (14) Parents need more effective ways to limit the exposure 
        of children to television with harmful content through 
        alternative, child-friendly tiers of programs.

SEC. 3. BASIC TIER CONTENT RESTRICTIONS.

    Part IV of title VI of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
631 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 641. KID-FRIENDLY PROGRAMMING TIER.

    ``(a) In General.--Within 1 months after the date of enactment of 
the Kid Friendly TV Programming Act of 2005, each multichannel video 
programming distributor shall offer a child-friendly tier of 
programming consisting of no fewer than 15 channels.
    ``(b) Blocking Instructions.--Beginning 6 months after the date of 
enactment of the Kid Friendly TV Programming Act of 2005, each 
multichannel video programming distributor shall provide, as part of 
the monthly statement of charges, instructions for how to block any 
channel whose content a subscriber may wish to block.
    ``(c) Penalties.--In addition to any other penalty imposed under 
this Act or title 18, United States Code, failure to comply with the 
requirements of this section is punishable by a civil penalty of up to 
$500,000 per day. Each day of such failure shall be considered a 
separate offense.
    ``(d) Child-Friendly Defined.--In this section, the term `child-
friendly tier' means a group of channels that do not carry programming, 
advertisements, or public service announcements that would be 
considered inappropriate for children due to obscene, indecent, 
profane, sexual, or gratuitous and excessively violent content.''.
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