[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 11, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6745]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1020
                               THE V-CHIP

  (Mr. MARKEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the violence chip received the 
endorsement of the President of the United States.
  This is a watershed moment in the fight for balance between parents 
who feel overwhelmed by the 200-channel television world of the future, 
and those who believe that the first amendment denies government any 
role in managing television.
  Parents can set their sets to block out violent shows, and the V-chip 
does the rest. Any show carrying a rating that the parent wants to keep 
out, gets blocked.
  For those of you who can't program the clock on your VCR, this is 
easier. If you want, you can set it once and not reset it until your 
kids are grown.
  In the meantime, a parent knows that at least in his or her living 
room, there is an oasis of peace and quiet, free from the guns and 
beatings and mayhem and sexual material that is so frequently used to 
attract TV audiences.
  This is nothing more or less than an on-off button, modernized for 
today's world. Parents can't be home all day, so technology will block 
shows until parents get home.
  It is not censorship, it is parental choice.
  It is not content regulation, it is parental mobilization.
  It is not big brother, it is big mother and big father.
  Ninety percent of parents polled want it. Within the next couple of 
days the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran], the gentleman from South 
Carolina [Mr. Spratt], the gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Bereuter], the 
gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Dickey], and I will be introducing 
legislation to advance this cause.

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