Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

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By Mr. WYDEN:

S. 946. A bill to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require multi-channel video programming distributors to provide a kid-friendly tier of programming; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I strongly believe that parents in our country should have more wholesome entertainment choices for their children. To make that possible, I am today introducing legislation to require that cable and satellite owners allow parents to purchase a child-friendly tier of television programming.

For years, the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have labored, to little avail, to turn off offensive programming with a variety of technologies. My legislation would ensure that America's families, 24/7, could turn on programming that is reliably friendly to our children.

While the legislation ensures that parents have more choices, the entertainment industry is assured that it has choices as well. Under the bill, Congress does not direct how the law is to be implemented. The Congress does not set prices. And the Congress does not take any step that is inconsistent with the first amendment.

About the only part of the legislation that is nonnegotiable is my belief that Congress should not dawdle any longer when the volume of degrading, violent, and antisocial entertainment our children are exposed to continues to grow.

Here is what America's parents deal with now. A recent study found that the average child in America has seen 8,000 murders depicted on television by the time they graduate from elementary school. Kids see about 10,000 television rapes, assaults, and murders each year. And in 2004, Americans filed more than 1 million complaints with the Federal Communications Commission about indecent programming.

Yesterday the National Cable and Telecommunications Association launched a new public service campaign to alert subscribers to parental control features that are already available and to introduce new larger TV rating icons. I haven't studied their proposal, but it certainly sounds constructive and I look forward to hearing more about their efforts.

The legislation I am introducing today is a truly new approach that has teeth. It is going to give parents more kid-friendly entertainment choices that are easy to understand. The legislation would require that all cable and satellite operators within 1 year of enactment offer a kid-friendly tier of programming. It would require monthly billing statements to include information about how customers can use blocking technology to stop offensive programming. And it would impose big-league fines of $500,000 a day on any cable or satellite operator who doesn't comply with the requirement that they give parents the chance to purchase kid-friendly programming. In this tier parents will know that there will be no content and no advertisements of a violent or sexual nature. Parents and adults who are not concerned about the current level of violence and sex on television would, of course, have access to those options with respect to current law.

This proposal is the first to tell cable and satellite operators they must offer a kid-friendly television tier so parents have more choices. The legislation does not dictate how it must be accomplished. It only says this tier of kid-friendly programming must carry a number of channels.

The legislation leaves it up to the operator whether to offer the kids tier as part of a basic or expanded basic package or as a completely separate package.

Certainly there is going to be some opposition. But I believe good quality programming and an option for families could translate to pretty good profits for those cable and satellite providers. Parents are going to find this option very attractive. If children are watching TV 4 hours a day, you can bet mom and dad are not able to stand there the whole time. A kids tier is going to take the guesswork out of TV time for America's parents.

Now there is an awful lot of guesswork. Time magazine found last month 53 percent of respondents said they thought the Federal Communications Commission ought to place stricter controls on broadcast channel shows depicting sex and violence. Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said the entertainment industry has lost touch with viewers' moral standards. Sixty-six percent said there is too much violence on open air TV. Fifty-eight percent said there is too much cursing. Fifty percent said there is too much sexual content.

I have worked to make sure that this legislation strikes an appropriate balance, offering choices to parents, not taking them away. A recent Pew Research survey found although 60 percent of Americans are very concerned about what kids see and hear on television, about half of those surveyed were more worried about the Government imposing undue restrictions and thought this was essentially the responsibility of the audience.

So what we are doing here shows a balanced kind of approach in line with the kinds of values Americans are expressing. Don't make choices for parents, but help parents make good choices for their children. With 8 out of 10 American households getting their television through cable or satellite programmers, it is time that parents be given the chance to sign up for programming that works for their family.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.

There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

S. 946

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