H-3284.1  _______________________________________________

                     HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4027

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      53rd Legislature     1994 Regular Session

By Representatives Patterson, Chandler, Sheahan, Brown, Campbell, Shin, Karahalios, Cothern, Dorn, Conway, Romero, Basich, B. Thomas, Stevens, Pruitt, Johanson, Wineberry, King, Brough, L. Johnson, Quall and H. Myers

Read first time 01/12/94.  Referred to Committee on Energy & Utilities.

Rereferred to Committee on Education.

Requesting federal legislation requiring that televisions be equipped to enable parents to block out violent programs and to reduce violence on television.

    TO THE HONORABLE BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

    We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

    WHEREAS, Violence and aggressive behavior in American society has dramatically increased in the last four decades, especially among our children and young people; and

    WHEREAS, The amount of violence on television has reached epidemic levels, with the American Psychological Association estimating that a child witnesses 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on television before finishing elementary school; and

    WHEREAS, The National Institute of Mental Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and many independent researchers all agree that viewing excessive levels of violence on television increases aggression in many children; and

    WHEREAS, Advance television and cable technologies will allow for the expansion of channel capacity to levels that will make it increasingly difficult for parents who want to protect their children from televised violence; and

    WHEREAS, The technology currently exists to equip television sets at a nominal cost to permit parents to electronically block individual programs they consider too violent for their children.  However, this technology will only be effective if (1) all television programmers send a violence rating system electronically with the program signal, and (2) parents are able to block out automatically all programs with ratings that they consider to be unacceptable for their children; and

    WHEREAS, This technology would allow parents to substantially reduce the amount of violence that their children witness without infringing upon the Constitutional safeguards of the First Amendment;

    NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that:

    The United States Congress and President Bill Clinton amend The Communication Act of 1934 to require that televisions sold in the United States be equipped with circuitry designed to enable viewers to block out channels, programs, and time slots, and to enable viewers to block out all programs with a common violence rating;

    The Cable Act of 1992 be amended to require that all cable companies provide their customers, at no cost, electronic equipment with this same capability;

    The federal government or an independent organization develop a violence rating system for television programming, and the violence rating be electronically broadcast with all broadcast, satellite, and cable programming; and

    The federal government take other appropriate actions to reduce the level of violence on television.

    BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

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