[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[February 29, 1996]
[Pages 344-345]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Meeting With Entertainment and Media Executives
February 29, 1996

    Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I have just concluded a 
very significant meeting with the leaders of America's media and 
entertainment industries. I am pleased to report on a breakthrough 
voluntary agreement to help parents protect their children from violence 
and adult content on television.
    Our purpose in this meeting has been to find out how we can help 
parents raise their children in the right way and to protect them as 
they raise them. In this high-technology age, our goal should be more 
opportunity, more responsibility, and more community, to make changes in 
the way we do business that will help people to raise their children and 
bring us together as a people even as we grow the economy and enjoy the 
opportunities that this new technological era brings.
    Just a little over a month ago in my State of the Union Address, I 
challenged Congress to pass legislation that requires new television 
sets to include a V-chip, to give parents the power to screen out 
violence and objectionable content in television programs. Earlier this 
month, with the Telecommunications Act, I signed the V-chip into law. 
Since that time, our administration, spearheaded by the Vice President, 
has worked with broadcasters, cable firms, production studios, and 
others to encourage them to find ways to take more responsibilities 
toward meeting our shared goals. I am gratified that the far-sighted 
leaders gathered here in this unprecedented meeting have risen to the 
challenge, and I thank them all.
    As a result of our discussions, the media and the entertainment 
industry has agreed to a voluntary system of ratings for television 
programs. These ratings will be put in place by the end of this year or 
the beginning of next year to help parents decide what programs they 
want their children to watch. And the V-chip will give parents the power 
to block those programs

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they do not want them to watch from their televisions.
    We're handing the TV remote control back to America's parents so 
that they can pass on their values and protect their children. In the 
next few moments, Jack Valenti will describe the next steps the industry 
will take. But they've already shown that they recognize their 
creativity and their freedom carries with it significant responsibility. 
I applaud them for it, and all Americans are in their debt.
    The work we began here is just that, a beginning. In our meeting I 
invited the industry leaders to come back to the White House to report 
once they have developed their rating systems, and I look forward to the 
work they will do.
    Let me say on their behalf--I know Jack Valenti will say this--but 
this is a complicated and difficult undertaking. They talked a lot about 
some of the challenges that they will face. I think that should cause 
all the rest of us to be all the more supportive of the fact that they 
are doing it, doing it together, and doing it with real deliberation and 
discipline on a specific timetable.
    We also had a very good discussion this morning of the urgent need 
to improve children's programming. It is not enough for parents to be 
able to tune out what they don't want their children to watch; they want 
to be able to tune in good programs that their children will watch. We 
take the Children's Television Act seriously. We want to continue to 
work with the industry to do the very best we can for our children in 
both quantity and quality of children's programming. And I believe the 
executives here today will bring to this challenge the same sense of 
responsibility they have brought to the issue of TV ratings.
    Ultimately, we're trying to raise our children successfully in an 
age of information overload in which the typical child will watch 25,000 
hours of television before his or her 18th birthday. Television is a 
powerful force to bring people together, to entertain, to educate, to 
open our minds and hearts. But we also know that young people are 
exposed regularly to numbing and pervasive violence and other 
destructive behavior when they park in front of the family television.
    I believe what we are doing here today shows how America can meet 
this challenge and many of our challenges by businesses and parents and 
Government all working together, each doing our part. It shows what can 
happen when visionary business leaders do make a commitment to values 
and the common good, as well as the bottom line, and when they live up 
to their responsibilities as corporate citizens of our great country.
    I want to say, too, that I hope the kind of responsibility these 
leaders have shown here today will be matched by other executives in 
other industries, on other problems the American people face in common. 
That is how we can move forward into this new age of possibility.
    Finally, let me give credit where credit is due. This breakthrough 
we see today is the result of literally years of concerns by America's 
parents. Ultimately it is only parents who can prevent our children from 
seeing programs that teach violence that has no consequences or that 
inappropriate behavior is glamorous. So to all the parents of America, I 
say: You will be handed a powerful tool; that you must now exercise it 
with the responsibilities that go with it. And to all the parents who 
have worked for this day, I say a very special thank you, especially to 
Tipper Gore, who has worked on this issue for 20 years, and to the First 
Lady, who has given it so much of her concern.
    America's media and entertainment industry is the world's most vital 
creative force. It would be much more difficult for me to be President 
were it not for the economic advantages in international trade brought 
to us by the creative energies of America's entertainment industry.
    I hope that this agreement today will ensure that that creativity 
will forever be a source of learning and values and responsibilities in 
the lives of our children, even as it continues to be a great source of 
your own success, our entertainment, and America's strength.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 1:10 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Jack Valenti, president, Motion 
Picture Association of America.