[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[March 2, 1996]
[Pages 351-352]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
March 2, 1996

    Good morning. Something remarkable happened this week, something 
that can forever help parents, children, and anybody who cares about 
what our children watch on television. We took an enormous step toward 
controlling the images of violence and vice that can enter our homes and 
disturb our children.
    Television is one of the most influential voices that can enter a 
home. It can be entertaining, enlightening, and educating. But when it 
transmits pictures or words we wouldn't want our children to see and 
hear in real life, television can become an unwelcome intruder, one that 
parents have too often found too difficult to control.
    In study after study, the evidence has steadily mounted that 
television violence is numbing and corrosive. It can have a destructive 
impact on young children. In my State of the Union speech, I challenged 
the Members of Congress to give control back to parents. I asked them to 
require TV's to include the V-chip, a device that lets parents filter 
out programs they don't want to let into their homes and their 
children's lives.
    Congress answered that challenge, and 3 weeks ago when I signed the 
telecommunications bill into law, the V-chip also became law. Now it 
will be standard in new television sets sold in our country. We need 
this.
    To make the V-chip work, I invited leaders of the media and 
entertainment industry to come to the White House to work with us to 
help our families. And this past Thursday I met with the leaders of the 
television networks, the production studios, the cable companies, 
actors, directors, and writers. Their response was overwhelming, and our 
meeting was a great success.
    For the first time ever, leaders of the television and entertainment 
industry have come to-


[[Page 352]]

gether as one force and agreed to develop a rating system for their 
programming that will help parents to protect their children from 
violence and other objectionable content on television. They said this 
system will be in place by next January.
    Like the movie ratings have done for 27 years, the ratings for 
television will help parents to guide their children's entertainment 
choices. The system will provide families with a standard they can rely 
on from show to show, from channel to channel. Parents are the best 
judges of what their children should and shouldn't see, and this new 
rating system will help them to make those critical judgments. The best 
programming director for our children is a parent.
    At my meeting with the entertainment industry, we also discussed the 
need for more programming that is suitable for children and that is 
educational and attractive to them. I want to preserve public 
broadcasting and the innovation it has brought in educational shows for 
children.
    These days, a typical child will watch 25,000 hours of television 
before his or her 18th birthday. It's up to us whether these shows 
stimulate their minds or numb them. Let's build on the good shows that 
we have as models for educating and informing our children. I applaud 
the entertainment leaders for what they have done voluntarily. Through 
their action, they are being responsible for the product they produce 
and they are showing greater concern for our American community and our 
children's future.
    With the V-chip and the rating system, we mark a sea change. We are 
harnessing technology, creativity, and responsibility, bringing together 
parents, business, and Government to meet a major challenge to our 
society. After all, it doesn't do a family any good to have a nice 
television if the images it brings to our children erodes their values 
and diminishes their future.
    We should look at this breakthrough as part of a bigger picture and 
as a lesson for even greater achievement. As I have said many times, 
this is an age of great possibility when more Americans will have more 
opportunities to live out their dreams than ever before. But we also 
know that this is a time of stiff challenges as well. If we are to meet 
those challenges, all of us must take our proper responsibility. 
Government must play a part but only a part. Only if each of us measures 
what we do by basic standards of right and wrong, taking responsibility 
for our actions, moving us together, will we be able to move forward as 
a Nation.
    Let me say again: Only if we work together in our businesses, our 
schools, our places of worship, our civic groups, will we transform our 
lives and our country. That is what I mean when I talk about corporate 
responsibility.
    The actions of the television industry show us what can happen when 
visionary business leaders make a commitment to values and the common 
good as well as to the bottom line, and when they live up to their 
responsibilities as corporate citizens of our great country. I hope 
their example will be matched by the executives in other industries to 
address other problems and other challenges we face as a people. That 
means corporations helping to improve our schools, helping to connect 
them to the information superhighway, helping to demand high standards. 
That means corporations finding new ways to protect our environment even 
as they grow the bottom line and improve our economy.
    That means businesses recognizing that workers are an asset, not a 
liability, and that a well-trained work force is any business' most 
important competitive edge. All these things demand a renewed commitment 
from business. And I am confident that the leaders of other industries 
will also rise to the challenge just the way the leaders of the 
entertainment industry did this week.
    We can celebrate a giant step toward realizing the possibility of a 
great instrument of communication in the homes of our families. I 
believe we can meet our other challenges as a Nation in the same way. 
We'll all want to stay tuned for that.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 4:42 p.m. on March 1 in the Roosevelt 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on March 2.