[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 27 (Wednesday, March 9, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2394-S2397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LIEBERMAN (for himself, Mr. Brownback, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. 
        Santorum, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Ensign):
  S. 579. 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 National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to 
study the role and impact of electronic media in the development of 
children, to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce, along with 
Senators Brownback, Clinton, Santorum, Landrieu, Ensign and Durbin, the 
Children and Media Research Advancement Act, or CAMRA Act. We believe 
there is an urgent need to establish a federal role for targeting 
research on the impact of media on children. From the cradle to the 
grave, our children now live and develop in a world of media--a world 
that is increasingly digital, and a world where access is at their 
fingertips. This emerging digital world is well known to our children, 
but its effects on their development are not well understood. Young 
people today are spending an average of 6 and a half hours with media 
each day. For those who are under age 6, two hours of exposure to 
screen media each day is common, even for those who are under age 2. 
That is about as much time as children under age 6 spend playing 
outdoors, and it is much more time than they spend reading or being 
read to by their parents. How does this investment of time affect 
children's physical development, their cognitive development, or their 
moral values? Unfortunately, we still have very limited information 
about how media, particularly the newer interactive media, affect 
children's development. Why? We have not charged any Federal agency 
with ensuring an ongoing funding base to establish a coherent research 
agenda about the impact of media on children's lives. This lack of a 
coordinated government-sponsored effort to understand the effects of 
media on children's development is truly an oversight on our part, as 
the potential payoffs for this kind of knowledge are enormous.

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  Consider our current national health crisis of childhood obesity. The 
number of U.S. children and teenagers who are overweight has more than 
tripled from the 1960's through 2002. We think that media exposure is 
partly the cause of this epidemic. Is it? Is time spent viewing screens 
and its accompanying sedentary lifestyle contributing to childhood and 
adolescent obesity? Or is the constant bombardment of advertisements 
for sugar-coated cereals, snack foods, and candy that pervade 
children's television advertisements the culprit? How do the newer 
online forms of ``stealth marketing'', such as advergaming where food 
products are embedded in computer games, affect children's and 
adolescents' purchasing patterns? What will happen when pop-up 
advertisements begin to appear on children's cell phones that 
specifically target them for the junk food that they like best at a 
place where that food is easily obtainable? The answer to the obesity 
and media question is complex. A committee at the National Academy of 
Sciences is currently charged with studying the link between media 
advertising and childhood obesity. Will the National Academy of 
Sciences panel have the data they need to answer this important 
question? A definitive answer has the potential to save a considerable 
amount of money in other areas of our budget. For example, child health 
care costs that are linked to childhood obesity issues could be reduced 
by understanding and altering media diets.
  Or take the Columbine incident. After two adolescent boys shot and 
killed some of their teachers, classmates, and then turned their guns 
on themselves at Columbine High School, we asked ourselves if media 
played some role in this tragedy. Did these boys learn to kill in part 
from playing first-person shooter video games like Doom where they 
acted as a killer? Were they rehearsing criminal activities when 
playing this game? We looked to the research community for an answer. 
In the violence and media area, Congress had passed legislation in the 
past so that research was conducted about the relationship between 
media violence and childhood aggression, and as a result, we knew more. 
Even though much of this data base was older and involved the link 
between exposure to violent television programs and childhood 
aggression, some answers were forthcoming about how the Columbine 
tragedy could have taken place. Even so, there is still a considerable 
amount of speculation about the more complex questions. Why did these 
particular boys, for example, pull the trigger in real life while 
others who played Doom confine their aggressive acts to the gaming 
context? We need to be able to answer questions about which children 
under what circumstances will translate game playing into real-life 
lethal actions. Investing in media research could potentially reduce 
our budgets associated with adolescent crime and delinquency as well as 
reduce real-life human misery and suffering.
  Many of us believe that our children are becoming increasingly 
materialistic. Does exposure to commercial advertising and the ``good 
life'' experienced by media characters partly explain materialistic 
attitudes? We're not sure. Recent research using brain-mapping 
techniques finds that an adult who sees images of desired 
products demonstrates patterns of brain activation that are typically 
associated with reaching out with a hand. How does repeatedly seeing 
attractive products affect our children and their developing brains? 
What will happen when our children will be able to click on their 
television screen and go directly to sites that advertise the products 
that they see in their favorite programs? Or use their cell phones to 
pay for products that they want in the immediate environment? Exactly 
what kind of values are we cultivating in our children, and what role 
does exposure to media content play in the development of those values?

  A report linked very early television viewing with later symptoms 
that are common in children who have attention deficit disorders. 
However, we don't know the direction of the relationship. Does 
television viewing cause attention deficits, or do children who have 
attention deficits find television viewing experiences more engaging 
than children who don't have attention problems? Or do parents whose 
children have difficulty sustaining attention let them watch more 
television to encourage more sitting and less hyperactive behavior? How 
will Internet experiences, particularly those where children move 
rapidly across different windows, influence attention patterns and 
attention problems? Once again, we don't know the answer. If early 
television exposure does disrupt the development of children's 
attention patterns, resulting in their placement in special education 
programs, actions taken to reduce screen exposure during the early 
years could lead to subsequent reductions in children's need for 
special education classes, thereby saving money while fostering 
children's development in positive ways.
  We want no child left behind in the 21st century. Many of us believe 
that time spent with computers is good for our children, teaching them 
the skills that they will need for success in the 21st century. Are we 
right? How is time spent with computers different from time spent with 
television? What are the underlying mechanisms that facilitate or 
disrupt children's learning from these varying media? Can academic 
development be fostered by the use of interactive online programs 
designed to teach as they entertain? In the first six years of life, 
Caucasian more so than African American or Latino children have 
Internet access from their homes. Can our newer interactive media help 
ensure that no child is left behind, or will disparities in access 
result in leaving some behind and not others?
  The questions about how media affect the development of our children 
are clearly important, abundant, and complex. Unfortunately, the 
answers to these questions are in short supply. Such gaps in our 
knowledge base limit our ability to make informed decisions about media 
policy.
  We know that media are important. Over the years, we have held 
numerous hearings in these chambers about how exposure to media 
violence affects childhood aggression. We passed legislation to 
maximize the documented benefits of exposure to educational media, such 
as the Children's Television Act which requires broadcasters to provide 
educational and informational television programs for children. Can we 
foster children's moral values when they are exposed to prosocial 
programs that foster helping, sharing, and cooperating like those that 
have come into being as a result of the Children's Television Act? We 
acted to protect our children from unfair commercial practices by 
passing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act which provides 
safeguards from exploitation for our youth as they explore the 
Internet, a popular pastime for them. Yet the Internet has provided new 
ways to reach children with marketing that we barely know is taking 
place, making our ability to protect our children all the more 
difficult. We worry about our children's inadvertent exposure to online 
pornography--about how that kind of exposure may undermine their moral 
values and standards of decency. In these halls of Congress, we acted 
to protect our children by passing the Communications Decency Act, the 
Child Online Protection Act, and the Children's Internet Protection Act 
to shield children from exposure to sexually-explicit online content 
that is deemed harmful to minors. While we all agree that we need to 
protect our children from online pornography, we know very little about 
how to address even the most practical of questions such as how to 
prevent children from falling prey to adult strangers who approach them 
online. There are so many areas in which our understanding is 
preliminary at best, particularly in those areas that involve the 
effects of our newer digital media.
  In order to ensure that we are doing our very best for our children, 
the behavioral and health recommendations and public policy decisions 
we make should be based on objective behavioral, social, and scientific 
research. Yet no Federal research agency has responsibility for 
overseeing and setting a coherent media research agenda that can guide 
these policy decisions. Instead, Federal agencies fund media research 
in a piecemeal fashion, resulting in a patch work quilt of findings. We 
can do better than that.
  The bill we are introducing today would remedy this problem. The

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CAMRA Act will provide an overarching view of media effects by 
establishing a program devoted to Children and Media within the 
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. This program 
of research, to be vetted by the National Academy of Sciences, will 
fund and energize a coherent program of research that illuminates the 
role of media in children's cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and 
behavioral development. The research will cover all forms of electronic 
media, including television, movies, DVDs, interactive video games, 
cell phones, and the Internet, and will encourage research involving 
children of all ages--even babies and toddlers. The bill also calls for 
a report to Congress about the effectiveness of this research program 
in filling this void in our knowledge base. In order to accomplish 
these goals, we are authorizing $90 million dollars to be phased in 
gradually across the next five years. The cost to our budget is minimal 
and can well result in significant savings in other budget areas.
  Our Nation values the positive, healthy development of our children. 
Our children live in the information age, and our country has one of 
the most powerful and sophisticated information technology systems in 
the world. While this system entertains them, it is not harmless 
entertainment. Media have the potential to facilitate the healthy 
growth of our children. They also have the potential to harm. We have a 
stake in finding out exactly what that role is. We have a 
responsibility to take action. Access to the knowledge that we need for 
informed decision-making requires us to make an investment: an 
investment in research, an investment in and for our children, an 
investment in our collective future. The benefits to our youth and our 
nation's families are immeasurable.
  By passing the Children and Media Research Advancement Act, we can 
advance knowledge and enhance the constructive effects of media while 
minimizing the negative ones. We can make future media policies that 
are grounded in a solid knowledge base. We can be proactive, rather 
than reactive. In so doing, we build a better nation for our youth, 
fostering the kinds of values that are the backbone of this great 
nation of ours, and we create a better foundation to guide future media 
policies about the digital experiences that pervade our children's 
daily lives.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.

                                 s. 579

       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 has 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 adolescent's health and development. These 
     hearings and other public discussions about the role of media 
     in children's and adolescent's 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 adolescent's 
     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 adolescent's 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 
     National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to--
       (1) examine the role and impact of electronic media in 
     children's and adolescent's 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.

       Subpart 7 of part C of title IV of the Public Health 
     Service Act (42 U.S.C. 285g et seq.) is amended by adding at 
     the end the following:

     ``SEC. 452H. RESEARCH ON THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF ELECTRONIC 
                   MEDIA IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AND 
                   ADOLESCENTS.

       ``(a) In General.--The Director of the Institute shall 
     enter into appropriate arrangements with the National Academy 
     of Science in collaboration with the Institute of Medicine to 
     establish an independent panel of experts 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 roles and impact of electronic media use, including 
     television, motion pictures, DVD's, interactive video games, 
     and the Internet, and exposure to that content and medium 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 adolescent's 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 adolescent's 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.--During the first year in which the 
     National Academy of Sciences panel is summarizing the data 
     and creating a comprehensive research agenda in the children 
     and adolescents and media area under subsection (a), the 
     Secretary shall provide for the conduct of initial 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 Director of the National Institute 
     of Child Health and Human Development shall develop and 
     implement a program that funds

[[Page S2397]]

     additional research determined to be necessary by the panel 
     under subsection (a) 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, age of child or 
     adolescent, and nature of parental involvement. Such program 
     shall include extramural and intramural research and shall 
     support collaborative efforts to link such research to other 
     National Institutes of Health research investigations on 
     early child health and development.
       ``(d) Eligible Entities.--To be eligible to receive a grant 
     under this section, an entity shall--
       ``(1) prepare and submit to the Director of the Institute 
     an application at such time, in such manner, and containing 
     such information as the Director 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 guidelines developed by the Director 
     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 this section 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; and
       ``(6) cell phones.
       ``(f) Reports.--
       ``(1) Report to director.--Not later than 12 months after 
     the date of enactment of this section, the panel under 
     subsection (a) shall submit the report required under such 
     subsection to the Director of the Institute.
       ``(2) Report to congress.--Not later than December 31, 
     2011, the Director of the Institute shall prepare and submit 
     to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of 
     the Senate, and Committee on Education and the Workforce 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.''.
                                 ______