    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [February 9, 1996]
    [Pages 191-193]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 191]]

    Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on the V-Chip With Families in
    Alexandria, Virginia
    February 9, 1996

        The President. First of all, I'd like to thank our hosts for
    welcoming us in and to all the members of the press and our guests here.
        As you know, yesterday I signed into law the Telecommunications Act
    of 1996, which was the first major overhaul of our telecommunications
    laws in six decades. That bill will do an enormous amount of good for
    our country. It will, for consumers, open up vast new opportunities for
    entertainment, vast new opportunities for information, vast new
    opportunities for different kinds of communication. It will create many,
    many thousands of high-wage jobs. But it will also bring a lot more
    images and messages into every home in America.
        One of the things that the Vice President, Mrs. Gore, and I like so
    much about this bill is that in addition to getting the benefits of the
    telecommunications revolution, it gives more power to the parents to
    control what their young children see on television by requiring all new
    television sets to have a V-chip in them.
        And so we wanted to come here today to discuss with these folks how
    they feel about it and to give them and to give you a chance to see how
    this will work. So, I'd like to turn it over to the Vice President and
    give him a chance to make a demonstration and some comments.

    [The Vice President said that the V-chip legislation would give parents
    the ability to make categorical choices about what their children could
    watch. He then demonstrated the V-chip concept by programming the host
    family's satellite television system to block movies exceeding a
    designated rating limit.]

        The President. Let me explain. This technology--you get this if you
    hook into a satellite where you may have access to large numbers of
    channels and a large number of movies. The difference in this and the
    Telecommunications Act is that it requires this V-chip which I want to
    show you. This is a V-chip. And it will be required to be put into all
    new television sets so that as every family in America buys a new set,
    they will have this. The V-chip basically is a power to the parent, a
    technology marvel. It enables everybody to have all the benefits of
    television. It will enable everyone to have the benefits of the new
    developments coming out of the telecommunications revolution, but it
    will give parents more control over the content of the programming to
    which their young children are exposed.
        Let me say I think it's quite important. Just this week we have seen
    another major study chronicling the destructive impact on young children
    of hours and hours and hours of mindless violence and the so numbing
    impact it has on our young children.
        So that's what the V-chip is designed to do. It will add about a
    dollar to the cost of every television set--a little less, actually. And
    we replace our TV sets at the rate of about 25 million a year, so as you
    can see, it will rapidly come to be a very important part of American
    family's arsenal of tools for raising children.
        And there's another benefit that this will bring as well. I have
    challenged the leaders of the entertainment industry to come and meet
    with me about this, to talk about how we can develop a rating system for
    television programs like we have a rating system for movies. And we
    believe as more and more families get this and exercise their options
    under it and as more and more information is available to parents, that
    it will change the programming so that even parents who can't afford to
    buy a new television this year or next year as the V-chip comes out will
    begin to benefit from it.
        So that's what the V-chip is. I guess I want to bring you back to
    Al, and he wants to say a few words before we turn it over to----

    [The Vice President introduced Tipper Gore, who expressed her long-
    standing concern about children's exposure to graphic and violent
    television programming and thanked the President for enabling families
    to protect their children in their own homes. She then invited the
    participants to comment. The first participant said she was excited
    about the opportunity to decide what would come into her home through
    the airwaves. An elementary school principal and father said that
    television had more power to influence children than schools did in
    terms of

    [[Page 192]]

    time and that the V-chip represented a giant step in saving the
    children. He also raised the issue of candy produced in the form of
    syringes.]

        The President. What you said about the candy, that makes a point
    about what I think is important about the television violence study. It
    seems to me--and what you said about the hours--it's not so much--and I
    know a lot of people in the media who produce these programs get very
    defensive. They think they're being unfairly attacked. They talk about
    there's always good content, often a good moral to the story of some of
    these things. But it's the cumulative impact of it. I don't think they
    see it from the parents--perspective of the parents. It's not that our
    kids couldn't handle this program, that program, or the other program.
    It is a total impact of hour after hour after hour, day after day.
        And the candy thing you mentioned made the point to me that--what it
    means is that people began to think of things as normal that we should
    never accept as normal, so we began to accept a level of violence in our
    society, that it's normal. It's not true. And that's the thing that
    bothers me. We have to go back. Now, one of the things that we've really
    worked hard on in our administration is trying to help communities
    reduce the crime rate. And I think we ought to--we need to keep at it
    until we go back to a time when people think that violence is abnormal,
    not normal; when crime is the exception, not the rule.
        And I think that it's much harder if kids--like 5 hours a day, 6
    days a week, for 15 years, they're dominated by this notion that it's a
    violent, brutal world, people do whatever they can get away with doing.

    [The Vice President mentioned the estimate that a child would witness
    20,000 simulated murders on television by high school graduation, and
    then asked if anyone had ever had to comfort a child whose sleep was
    affected by what they saw on television. Several participants answered
    that they had, and one complained that even if the programming was
    acceptable, the commercials could be a problem.]

        The President. I must say, since I don't watch as much television as
    I used to, I was sort of unaware of that. But it's so interesting you
    said that, because my best friend from childhood called me yesterday, a
    guy I went to grade school with, and he has three wonderful children.
    They're various ages, like your children. His oldest child is my
    daughter's age, and he has two younger ones. He said the same thing. He
    was talking about a show he was watching with his youngest child, a
    little girl, and he made the same point you did, that--no one had ever
    said this before, the disconnection between the programming content and
    the ads.

    [The participant said that she felt she had to be there the entire time
    her child was watching. The Vice President said that broadcasters should
    correct that problem and cited ratings for theater movie previews. Two
    participants agreed that television ads posed a daily problem. Another
    participant said that the V-chip ratings system would have a direct
    impact as a guide even for people without V-chip televisions.]

        The President. That's correct.

    [The participant asked about the prospect for a low-cost installable V-
    chip.]

        The President. That's a big problem. We're concerned about that. Do
    you want to talk about that?

    [The Vice President said that there would be devices to make an older TV
    compatible with the V-chip system. He added that with the introduction
    of the V-chip, the dynamics in the marketplace would change in favor of
    programming that would not be blocked by the V-chip.]

        The President. Keep in mind, though, the ratings, as we all know--
    all of us who've ever purchased advertising know--advertising rates are
    tied to rating rates. Income is all related to rating rates. If there
    are--let's say there are 300 million television sets in the United
    States, which is, I think, about right. That means within 4 years, at a
    25-million-a-year replacement rate, a third of the television sets will
    have these. If, among the third, just a significant percentage--not even
    a majority, just a significant percentage of the parents with young
    children begin to use this along with the rating system, it will affect
    the overall ratings, and it will have a backup impact that will benefit
    the parents that don't own it.
        Also, I think, to be fair, a lot of our children are still at a
    position in their life that if we knew enough to know what things to ask
    them not to watch, they wouldn't do it. I don't think we should minimize
    the fact that a lot of these problems are caused by blind ignorance.

    [[Page 193]]

    [A participant said that she avoided unwanted programming at home by not
    watching television. The Vice President then asked the children for
    their comments. One child responded that he had nightmares after
    watching scary movies with a friend. Another child said that many
    parents were overprotective concerning television shows.]

        The President. I agree with that. I think kids are a lot more--good
    kids that have good, loving parents and a good, loving home, they can
    handle a lot more sometimes than their parents think. I agree with that,
    but the only thing I would say in defense of the parents is, remember
    what I said in the beginning, it's not so much that one program. If it
    was just one program, you know, it wouldn't be--it is the total impact
    of this on families where there are no restrictions for hours and hours
    a day, every day of the week, for a whole childhood. It changes your
    outlook toward the world, and what is and is not acceptable, and what
    you think about human nature, and whether you're optimistic or
    pessimistic, in ways that you don't--you can't know while it's happening
    to you. That's what I would say in defense of stricter parents.
        It's not that kids can't handle one thing, nearly any one thing. You
    know, you read a lot of examples of children that see horrible incidents
    on the street, and they grow up to be perfectly fine, wonderful people.
    It's the total impact. And that's why parents need to have this.

    [One young man said he thought it was an excellent idea for younger
    children, especially when both parents were working. A parent added that
    blocking certain shows made a statement to children about individual and
    family values. The Vice President agreed that drawing a line was a
    significant part of parenting. Another participant expressed dismay that
    violence was presented as entertainment. The school principal noted that
    violence had become too commonplace and stated the need to teach
    nonviolence. He also praised the V-chip as a means to cope with
    unexpected violent or sexual content in movies shown on cable
    television.]

        The President. Let me just say one final thing about this. Maybe we
    ought to change the name from V-chip to parent power chip.
        One of the things that we talk about all the time, to go beyond
    this, is that all these technological changes that are going on in the
    world are so wonderful in so many ways, in making opportunities for
    people to do things they never could do before. But if we're not
    careful, they also make the majority of the people feel that they're
    losing control of their lives in many ways, not just this way, in many
    ways. And I think anything we can do to harness the power of new
    technology to give people more control back over their lives, their
    family lives, the workplace, the community, that's a good thing. We
    don't want people to feel powerless.
        One of the things that frustrates people in this country is they
    feel like there are all these forces out there running around working on
    their lives, and they have no control over them. And this is maybe just
    one small step, but it's a way of saying to people that new technologies
    can put you back in the driver's seat in your life, not take you further
    and further out of it.

    [A participant thanked the President and the Vice President for support
    of the V-chip legislation to empower parents.]

        The President. It's still the most important work in this society.
    It's everybody's most important job.
        Participants. Thank you.
        The President. Thank you very much. Thanks again for having me here.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:05 a.m. at the residence of Ric and Jean
    Voigt.