[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 7 (Monday, February 19, 1996)]
[Pages 237-240]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
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.
[Vice President Gore said that the V-chip legislation gives parents the
ability to make categorical choices about what their children can 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.
[[Page 238]]
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----
[Vice President Gore 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 time and 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.
[Vice President Gore 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 the last 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. Vice President Gore said that broadcasters
should fix that, just as movie previews now are rated. 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 of a V-chip that would be an
installable item at a low cost.]
The President. That's a big problem. We're concerned about that. Do
you want to talk about that?
[Vice President Gore said that there would be devices to make an older
TV compatible with the V-chip system. He added that with
[[Page 239]]
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.
[A participant said that she avoided unwanted programming at home by not
watching television. Vice President Gore then asked the children for
comments on how they felt about it. 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. Vice President Gore agreed that drawing a line is a
significant part of parenting. Another participant expressed dismay that
violence is 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 on cable.]
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
[[Page 240]]
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. This item was not received in time for publication in the
appropriate issue.