[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 162 (Friday, December 16, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13789-S13791]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. CLINTON (for herself, Mr. Lieberman, and Mr. Bayh):
  S. 2126. A bill to limit the exposure of children to violent video 
games; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a bill to help 
parents protect their children against violent and sexual media. In 
rising, I stand with the parents and children of New York and of the 
Nation, all of whom are being victimized by a culture of violence.
  As parents, we monitor the kind of people who interact with our 
children. We attend parent night at school. We meet our children's 
teachers. We look over their textbooks to make sure they are installing 
our values and attitudes in our children. We meet our children's 
friends and their parents to make sure they are a positive source of 
influence.
  If somebody is exposing our children to material we find 
inappropriate, we remove our children from that person.
  If you hired a babysitter who exposed your children to violence and 
sexual material that you thought was inappropriate, what would you do? 
If you are like me, you would fire that babysitter and never invite him 
or her to come back.
  Yet our children spend more time consuming media than doing anything 
else but sleeping and attending school. Media culture is like having a 
stranger in your house, and it exerts a major influence over your 
children.
  It is this attack on the sensibilities of our children that is the 
subject of the bill I introduce today. It is a bill that I consider to 
be of tremendous importance to our families.
  This bill would take an important step towards helping parents 
protect their children against influences they often find to be 
inappropriate--violent and sexually explicit video games. Quite simply, 
the bill would put teeth into the video game industry's rating system, 
which specifies which video games are inappropriate for young people 
under 17. By fining retailers who do not abide by the ratings system, 
this bill sends a message that the ratings system is to be taken 
seriously.
  I know many of my colleagues, myself included, don't play video games 
and aren't aware of exactly what is contained in these games. So, I 
hope you will listen as I describe a few scenes so we know what is at 
issue here today.
  Consider the following scenario: You have been captured by a demented 
film-maker who drops you into a gang-infested slum. While the gangs 
think they are hunting you, they don't know the real plot: that you are 
hunting them, while the director records each act of murder on film. 
Since you are outnumbered and could easily be mobbed, you cannot just 
jump in and fight everyone. Rather, you must be silent and patient, 
tracking your prey so that you can strike from behind. You strangle a 
villain with a sharp wire, and a finely rendered mist of blood sprays 
from his severed carotid artery. . . .
  This is just one scene from one game. It happens not to be a game 
that has gotten a tremendous amount of attention lately. Frankly, I 
don't know if it's one of the most popular games out

[[Page S13790]]

there or not. But I do know, if my daughter was still young, I wouldn't 
want her playing it.
  Here is another one: Carl Johnson long ago escaped the hardships of 
street life in San Andreas. Now his mother is murdered, his old buddies 
are in trouble, and Carl must come home to clean up the mess--San 
Andreas style. That means spraying people with uzi bullets, blowing 
them up, or sniper shooting them from the top of buildings. It also 
means killing police officers and visiting prostitutes.
  No one doubts that this material is inappropriate for children. The 
video game industry itself developed and implemented the ratings system 
that parents rely on today. They are responsible for developing the 
``M'' for Mature or ``AO'' for Adults Only labels, which signal to 
parents that the content is too violent and/or sexually explicit for a 
child to play.
  Unfortunately, enforcement has been lax and minors can purchase 
Mature-rated games with relative ease. A 2001 study by the Federal 
Trade Commission showed that 85 percent of unaccompanied minors, ages 
13 to 16, could purchase games rated Mature. A study by the National 
Institute on Media and the Family found that nearly half of children, 
as young as age 9, succeed in buying Mature-rated games. And close to a 
quarter of retailers did not understand the ratings system and half did 
not provide any training to their employees.
  This is a terrible problem that needs to be fixed. And this bill does 
just that.
  I want to be clear--this bill is not an attack on video games. Video 
games are a fun part of the lives of millions of Americans, young and 
old alike. They can teach coordination and strategy. They can introduce 
children to computer technology. They can provide practice in learning 
to problem solve and they can help children hone their fine motor and 
spatial skills.
  This bill is also not an attack on free and creative expression. 
Relying on the growing body of scientific evidence that demonstrates a 
causal link between exposure to these games and antisocial behavior in 
our children, this bill was carefully drafted to pass constitutional 
strict scrutiny.
  Furthermore, nothing in this bill limits the production or sale of 
these games beyond current practice. If retailers are following the 
rules--established voluntarily by the video game industry--then this 
bill will have absolutely no impact on them.
  And this bill does not overlook or undervalue the critical role 
parents play in protecting their children, and instilling in them, 
their own values. This bill is designed to buoy the efforts of parents, 
who too often feel like they are fighting an uphill battle against the 
violent and sexually explicit messages that are just a trip to the mall 
away.
  The unfortunate truth is there is a darkside to some video games, 
which has lead to a universal agreement--among parents, advocates, 
policymakers, and the gaming industry--that some games are not suitable 
for children. What we are seeking to do today is to ensure that that 
value judgment is meaningful.
  Much of the public concern about the exposure of children to M-rated 
games focuses on sexually explicit content. Parents are rightly worried 
about this content and we should come together to take steps to keep 
these games out of the hands of our kids. But let's not discount the 
awful effect of violence in the media because, frankly, the evidence on 
this point is overwhelming and deserves more of our attention.
  Consider the Joint Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence 
on Children from the Congressional Public Health Summit in July of 
2000. I quote: ``Well over 1,000 studies--including reports from the 
Surgeon General's office, the National Institute of Mental Health, and 
numerous studies conducted by leading figures within our medical and 
public health organizations . . . point overwhelmingly to a causal 
connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some 
children,'' states their report.
  The American Academy of Pediatrics stated, in a report entitled Media 
Exposure Feeding Children's Violent Acts, ``Playing violent video games 
is to an adolescent's violent behavior what smoking tobacco is to lung 
cancer.'' I ask to have printed in the Record a resolution adopted by 
the American Psychological Association about the effect of violence in 
video games and interactive media.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

      Resolution on Violence in Video Games and Interactive Media

       Whereas, decades of social science research reveals the 
     strong influence of televised violence on the aggressive 
     behavior of children and youth (APA Task Force On Television 
     and Society; 1992 Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory 
     Committee on Television and Social Behavior, 1972); and
       Whereas, psychological research reveals that the electronic 
     media play an important role in the development of attitude, 
     emotion, social behavior and intellectual functioning of 
     children and youth (APA Task Force On Television and Society, 
     1992; Funk, J. B., et al. 2002; Singer, D. G. & Singer, J. L. 
     2005; Singer, D. G. & Singer, J. L. 2001); and
       Whereas, there appears to be evidence that exposure to 
     violent media increases feelings of hostility, thoughts about 
     aggression, suspicions about the motives of others, and 
     demonstrates violence as a method to deal with potential 
     conflict situations (Anderson, C.A., 2000; Anderson, C.A., 
     Carnagey, N. L., Flanagan, M., Benjamin, A. J., Eubanks, J., 
     Valentine, J. C., 2004; Gentile, D. A., Lynch, P. J., Linder, 
     J. R., & Walsh, D. A., 2004; Huesmann, L. R., Moise, J., 
     Podolski, C. P., & Eron, L. D., 2003; Singer, D. & Singer, 
     J., 2001); and
       Whereas, perpetrators go unpunished in 73% of all violent 
     scenes, and therefore teach that violence is an effective 
     means of resolving conflict. Only 16% of all programs 
     portrayed negative psychological or financial effects, yet 
     such visual depictions of pain and suffering can actually 
     inhibit aggressive behavior in viewers (National Television 
     Violence Study, 1996); and
       Whereas, comprehensive analysis of violent interactive 
     video game research suggests such exposure a.) increases 
     aggressive behavior, b.) increases aggressive thoughts, c.) 
     increases angry feelings, d.) decreases helpful behavior, 
     and, e.) increases physiological arousal (Anderson, C.A., 
     2002b; Anderson, C.A., Carnagey, N. L., Flanagan, M., 
     Benjamin, A. J., Eubanks, J., Valentine, J. C., 2004; 
     Anderson, C.A., & Dill, K. E., 2000; Bushman, B.J., & 
     Anderson, C.A., 2002; Gentile, D. A, Lynch, P. J., Linder, J. 
     R., & Walsh, D. A., 2004); and
       Whereas, studies further suggest that sexualized violence 
     in the media has been linked to increases in violence towards 
     women, rape myth acceptance and anti-women attitudes. 
     Research on interactive video games suggests that the most 
     popular video games contain aggressive and violent content; 
     depict women and girls, men and boys, and minorities in 
     exaggerated stereotypical ways; and reward, glamorize and 
     depict as humorous sexualized aggression against women, 
     including assault, rape and murder (Dietz, T. L., 1998; Dill, 
     K. E., & Dill, J. C., 2004; Dill, K. E., Gentile, D. A, 
     Richter, W. A., & Dill, J.C., in press; Mulac, A., Jansma, L. 
     L., & Linz, D. G., 2002; Walsh, D., Gentile, D. A., 
     VanOverbeke, M., & Chasco, E., 2002); and
       Whereas, the characteristics of violence in interactive 
     video games appear to have similar detrimental effects as 
     viewing television violence; however based upon learning 
     theory (Bandura, 1977; Berkowitz, 1993), the practice, 
     repetition, and rewards for acts of violence may be more 
     conducive to increasing aggressive behavior among children 
     and youth than passively watching violence on TV and in films 
     (Carll, E. K., 1999a). With the development of more 
     sophisticated interactive media, such as virtual reality, the 
     implications for violent content are of further concern, due 
     to the intensification of more realistic experiences, and may 
     also be more conducive to increasing aggressive behavior than 
     passively watching violence on TV and in films (Calvert, S. 
     L., Jordan, A. B., Cocking, R. R. (Ed.) 2002; Carll, E. K., 
     2003; Turkle, S., 2002); and
       Whereas, studies further suggest that videogames influence 
     the learning processes in many ways more than in passively 
     observing TV: a.) requiring identification of the participant 
     with a violent character while playing video games, b.) 
     actively participating increases learning, c.) rehearsing 
     entire behavioral sequences rather than only a part of the 
     sequence, facilitates learning, and d.) repetition increases 
     learning (Anderson, C.A., 2002b; Anderson, C.A., Carnagey, N. 
     L., Flanagan, M., Benjamin, A. J., Eubanks, J., Valentine, J. 
     C., 2004; Anderson, C.A. & Dill, K. E., 2000); and
       Whereas the data dealing with media literacy curricula 
     demonstrate that when children are taught how to view 
     television critically, there is a reduction of TV viewing in 
     general, and a clearer understanding of the messages conveyed 
     by the medium. Studies on media literacy demonstrate when 
     children are taught how to view television critically, 
     children can feel less frightened and sad after discussions 
     about the medium, can learn to differentiate between fantasy 
     and reality, and can identify less with aggressive 
     characters. on TV, and better understand commercial messages 
     (Brown, 2001; Hobbs, R. & Frost, R., 2003; Hortin, J.A., 
     1982; Komaya, M., 2003; Rosenkoetter, L.J., Rosenkoetter, 
     S.E., Ozretich, R.A., & Acock, A.C., 2004; Singer & Singer, 
     1998; Singer & Singer, 1994)
       Therefore be it Resolved that APA advocate for the 
     reduction of all violence in

[[Page S13791]]

     videogames and interactive media marketed to children and 
     youth.
       Be it further Resolved that APA publicize information about 
     research relating to violence in video games and interactive 
     media on children and youth in the Association's publications 
     and communications to the public.
       Be it further Resolved that APA encourage academic, 
     developmental, family, and media psychologists to teach media 
     literacy that meets high standards of effectiveness to 
     children, teachers, parents and caregivers to promote ability 
     to critically evaluate interactive media and make more 
     informed choices.
       Be it further Resolved that APA advocate for funding to 
     support basic and applied research, including special 
     attention to the role of social learning, sexism, negative 
     depiction of minorities, and gender on the effects of 
     violence in video games and interactive media on children, 
     adolescents, and young adults.
       Be it further Resolved that APA engage those responsible 
     for developing violent video games and interactive media in 
     addressing the issue that playing violent video games may 
     increase aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors in 
     children, youth, and young adults and that these effects may 
     be greater than the well documented effects of exposure to 
     violent television and movies.
       Be it further Resolved that APA recommend to the 
     entertainment industry that the depiction of the consequences 
     of violent behavior be associated with negative social 
     consequences.
       Be it further Resolved that APA (a) advocate for the 
     development and dissemination of a content based rating 
     system that accurately reflects the content of video games 
     and interactive media, and (b) encourage the distribution and 
     use of the rating system by the industry, the public, 
     parents, caregivers and educational organizations.

  Mrs. CLINTON. In June, a groundbreaking study by researchers at the 
University of Indiana School of Medicine, which was published in the 
Journal of Clinical Psychology, concluded that adolescents exposed to 
high levels of violent media were less able to control and to direct 
their thoughts and behavior, to stay focused on a task, to plan, to 
screen out distractions, and to use experience to guide inhibitions.
  A 2004 meta-analysis of over 35 research studies that included over 
4,000 participants, found similar results. It concluded that playing 
violent video games significantly increases aggressive behavior, 
physiological arousal and feelings of anger and hostility, and 
significantly decreases pro-social helping behavior.
  And according to testimony by Craig Andersen before the Commerce 
Committee in 2000, violent video games have been found to increase 
violent adolescent behavior by 13 to 22 percent. Eighty-six percent of 
African American females in the games are victims of violence. And, the 
most common role for women in video games is prostitutes.
  Research also demonstrates the opposite--reducing exposure to 
violence reduces aggressive behavior. A 2001 study by Stanford 
University School of Medicine found that reducing TV and video violence 
consumption to under one hour per day reduces verbal aggression by 50 
percent and physical aggression by 40 percent among 3rd and 4th grade 
children.
  Now, if you don't find the scientists compelling, consider a child 
named Devon Thompson, who shot three police officers after being 
brought in under suspicion of driving a stolen car. He grabbed one of 
the officer's guns, shot three men and then jumped into a police car, a 
scene remarkably like one found in the game Grand Theft Auto. When 
Thompson was apprehended he said ``Life is a video game. You've got to 
die sometime.''
  In the face of this mountain of scientific and anecdotal evidence, 
the same company that developed Grand Theft Auto is coming out with a 
new game called Bully. In Bully, the player is a student who beats up 
other students in school.
  Again, I am not here to argue that these games shouldn't be developed 
or made available. But, I am here to ask, can't we as a society do 
better by our kids? Can't we give parents the tools to make sure they 
know what may fall into the hands of their children?
  That is what this bill is all about and I urge my colleagues to join 
me in supporting it.
                                 ______