[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3676 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3676

  To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide for a child safe 
   viewing area within which covered air carriers shall not display 
                     violent in-flight programming.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 26, 2007

Mr. Shuler (for himself, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, Mr. Donnelly, Mr. 
 Price of North Carolina, Mr. Hill, Mr. Cardoza, Mr. Wamp, Mr. Souder, 
 Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Duncan, Mr. McIntyre, Mr. Barrow, and Mr. 
 Lincoln Davis of Tennessee) introduced the following bill; which was 
     referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide for a child safe 
   viewing area within which covered air carriers shall not display 
                     violent in-flight 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 ``Family Friendly Flights Act of 
2007''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Children are a captive audience for publicly viewable 
        in-flight entertainment on commercial aviation flights.
            (2) Children under the age of 13 are often exposed to non-
        cartoon images of murder, torture, general violence and other 
        images terrifying to most children while traveling on domestic 
        flights in the United States.

SEC. 3. CHILD SAFE VIEWING AREA.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter I of chapter 417 of title 49, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
``Sec. 41724. Child Safe Viewing Area
    ``(a) Establishment of Child Safe Viewing Area.--If a covered air 
carrier provides publicly viewable entertainment screens on which 
violent in-flight programming is displayed, such carrier shall provide 
a child safe viewing area for all passengers who are children under the 
age of 13 and for at least 1 adult travel companion per child.
    ``(b) Allocation of Seating.--
            ``(1) Priority of seating for unaccompanied minors.--All 
        unaccompanied children under the age of 13 shall be seated in 
        the child safe viewing area.
            ``(2) Opportunity to request seating in child safe viewing 
        area.--A covered air carrier, a ticket agent, or an individual 
        employed by a covered air carrier or ticket agent, when issuing 
        a ticket to an adult traveling with a child under the age of 
        13, shall offer the opportunity to request seating in the child 
        safe viewing area.
    ``(c) Definitions.--For the purposes of this section, the following 
definitions apply:
            ``(1) Child safe viewing area.--The term `child safe 
        viewing area' means an area on an aircraft operated by a 
        covered air carrier in which there are no publicly viewable 
        entertainment screens displaying violent in-flight programming 
        located within 10 rows of seating of such area.
            ``(2) Covered air carrier.--The term `covered air carrier' 
        means an air carrier that provides scheduled passenger 
        interstate air transportation or scheduled passenger intrastate 
        air transportation.
            ``(3) Publicly viewable entertainment screen.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The term `publicly viewable 
                entertainment screen' means a video screen prominently 
                located in the passenger compartment of an aircraft and 
                viewable by more than 3 passengers, including all 
                screens located in the aisles and on bulkhead walls.
                    ``(B) Exception.--The term `publicly viewable 
                entertainment screen' does not include a personal video 
                screen located on the back of a seat or a stowable 
                screen intended for single-passenger use.
            ``(4) Violent in-flight programming.--The term `violent in-
        flight programming' means--
                    ``(A) motion pictures that were either not rated by 
                the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) or 
                were rated PG-13, R, or NC-17 by the MPAA; or
                    ``(B) video programming that, when originally 
                distributed for transmission through broadcast, a cable 
                system, or satellite carrier, was not rated or was 
                rated TV-PG-V, TV-13-V, TV-14-V, TV-MA-V, or otherwise 
                rated as a program that parents may find unsuitable for 
                younger children on the basis of violence.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The analysis for chapter 417 of title 
49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end of the items 
relating to subchapter I the following:

``41724. Child safe viewing area.''.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by section 3 shall take effect on January 1, 
2008.
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