[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.