[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 10, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S10208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    A CALL TO TONE DOWN THE VIOLENCE

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, during our recess Joan Beck, an 
editorial writer for the Chicago Tribune who also does a column for the 
Tribune, had a column in which she calls on TV and movie executives to 
reduce the violence.
  It is a subject that I have spent a fair amount of time on, and it is 
important to creating a more stable society and a brighter future for 
our children.
  This is an area where bi-partisanship should mark our actions. I 
applaud both Bob Dole and Bill Clinton for being concerned here.
  Mr. President, I ask that the article from The Chicago Tribune be 
printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

                    A Call To Tone Down the Violence

                             (By Joan Beck)

       Bob Dole's latest efforts to persuade Hollywood to tone 
     down the amount of violence in the movies got two thumbs down 
     from most of his critics. They ridiculed his taste in films. 
     They fretted about censorship. And they give him only pro 
     forma applause before ignoring what he was saying.
       Bill Clinton last week got TV broadcasters to agree to air 
     a minimum of three hours of educational television for 
     children every week. But his critics carped about government 
     over-regulation. They argued about how to define 
     ``educational.'' And they bristled about TV executives being 
     used to further Clinton's re-election campaign.
       But both the president and his Republican challenger are 
     right about the dangers of exposing impressionable children 
     to so much violence on TV and in the movies. The points they 
     are making shouldn't be ignored.
       Crime statistics may be down slightly in a few urban areas. 
     But bombings, bomb threats and bomb scares are increasing. 
     Drive-by shootings are being committed by kids on bicycles to 
     young to have cars. One in every three black men in their 20s 
     are either in prison or on probation or parole--up from one 
     in four five year ago. Many urban parks and streets are 
     abandoned at night because people fear for their lives.
       Violent behavior has multiple--and interlocking--causes, of 
     course. They include poverty, hopelessness, abuse, poor 
     parenting, illegal drugs, mental illness, alcohol, racism, 
     distorted values, gangs, the absence of violence in movies 
     and TV.
       Of these, the easiest and quickest to change may be 
     television and movies.
       Adults who enjoy violence as entertainment and the media 
     executives who profit from it argue there is no convincing 
     evidence to link violence in mass media to violence in real 
     life. Like tobacco company honchos, they dismiss stacks of 
     studies showing they are wrong.
       But at the same time they claim TV does not promote violent 
     behavior, media executives assure advertisers that 
     commercials will influence millions of viewers. Their 
     marketing departments have piles of research to back them up.
       It is tricky to pinpoint how big an effect violence on TV 
     and in the movies has on children and young people. Excessive 
     exposure to filmed violence in childhood may not erupt into 
     homicide and crime until adolescence. Other factors certainly 
     make some children more vulnerable than others to media 
     influences.
       But the June issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter sums 
     up persuasive evidence that does link watching violence in 
     mass media and aggressive behavior. The report is written by 
     L. Rowell Huesmann, professor of psychology and 
     communication, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and 
     Jessica Moise, a doctoral student at the University of 
     Michigan.
       More than 100 laboratory studies done over the last 40 
     years show that at least some children exposed to films of 
     dramatic violence act more aggressively afterward toward 
     inanimate objects and other youngsters, the newsletter says. 
     It adds, ``These results have been found in many countries 
     among boys and girls of all social classes, races, ages and 
     levels of intelligence.''
       In addition, more than 50 field studies made over the last 
     20 years find that ``children who habitually watch more media 
     violence behave more aggressively and accept aggression more 
     readily as a way to solve problems.'' The connection shows up 
     regardless of age, sex, social class and previous level of 
     aggression, the author say.
       Watching violence in the media leads to aggressive behavior 
     in five ways, the Harvard newsletter says. First, children 
     may imitate characters they see in the media, especially if 
     they are admirable and their actions are rewarded. Then they 
     tend to internalize the behavior and use it automatically in 
     their everyday lives.
       Second, violence in the media desensitizes children to the 
     effects of violence. ``The more televised violence a child 
     watches, the more acceptable aggressive behavior becomes,'' 
     says the newsletter. It also makes children expect others to 
     act violently and therefore feel they should, too.
       Third, seeing violence in the media helps a child justify 
     to himself his own acts of aggression and relieves any guilt 
     he might feel, freeing him to continue to behave 
     aggressively.
       Fourth, watching violent acts on TV and in movies may 
     activate aggressive thoughts and feelings a child already has 
     or serve as a cognitive cue for later violent behavior. And 
     fifth, children who watch a lot of violence can become 
     desentized to it and the emotional and physiological 
     responses that might turn them away from it become dulled.
       ``The studies are conclusive,'' says the Harvard 
     newsletter. ``The evidence leaves no room for doubt that 
     exposure to media violence stimulates aggression.''
       The new V chip that lets parents cut off their children's 
     access to violent programs should help. More high quality, 
     ``educational'' shows for children on TV is a positive move. 
     And all of us who fear violence and regret the changes we are 
     making to protect ourselves--airline security checks, gated 
     communities, more police, more prisons, more restrictions on 
     ourselves about walking in the parks and on certain streets--
     can stop supporting violence as entertainment.
       We can cut violence on TV and in movies out of our lives 
     and help make it unprofitable for those who sell it. If 
     enough of us refuse to pay to see violent films, studios will 
     make fewer of them. If enough of us change the channel when a 
     violent TV show comes on, broadcasters will get the message.
       Cutting back on violence as entertainment won't solve the 
     problem of violence in the real world. But it should help. 
     It's something we can do now, while we try to figure out how 
     to end poverty and keep fathers in the home and create more 
     effective schools and end drug abuse and deal with all the 
     other factors that contribute to violent crime.

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