Hearing Committee on G
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
S. Hrg. 107–159 RATING ENTERTAINMENT RATINGS: HOW WELL ARE THEY WORKING FOR PARENTS AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE THEM? HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JULY 25, 2001 Printed for the use of the Committee on Governmental Affairs ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 75–480 PDF WASHINGTON : 2002 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:09 Mar 11, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 75480.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman CARL LEVIN, Michigan FRED THOMPSON, Tennessee DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TED STEVENS, Alaska RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio MAX CLELAND, Georgia PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi JEAN CARNAHAN, Missouri ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah MARK DAYTON, Minnesota JIM BUNNING, Kentucky JOYCE A. RECHTSCHAFFEN, Staff Director and Counsel LAWRENCE B. NOVEY, Counsel HANNAH S. SISTARE, Minority Staff Director and Counsel FRED ANSELL, Minority Chief Counsel DARLA D. CASSELL, Chief Clerk (II) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:09 Mar 11, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 75480.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS C O N T E N T S Opening statements: Page Senator Lieberman ........................................................................................... 1 Senator Thompson ............................................................................................ 4 Senator Carper ................................................................................................. 32 Senator Durbin ................................................................................................. 36 Prepared statement: Senator Bunning ............................................................................................... 71 WITNESSES WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2001 Hon. Sam Brownback, a U.S. Senator from the State of Kansas ........................ 9 Dale Kunkel, Ph.D., Professor of Communications, University of California, Santa Barbara ...................................................................................................... 13 Roger Pilon, Ph.D., J.D., Vice President for Legal Affairs, B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies, Director, Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute ....................................................................................................... 15 Michael Rich, M.D., M.P.H., Children’s Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School .................................................................................................................... 18 Laura Smith, Mother ............................................................................................... 21 William Baldwin, President, The Creative Coalition ............................................ 39 Doug McMillon, Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ........................................................................................... 42 Hilary Rosen, President and CEO, Recording Industry Association of America 44 Jack Valenti, President and CEO, The Motion Picture Association of America 47 Douglas Lowenstein, President, Interactive Digital Software Association ......... 50 Russell Simmons, Chairman, Phat Farm .............................................................. 68 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WITNESSES Baldwin, William: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 39 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 97 Brownback, Hon. Sam: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 9 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 11 Kunkel, Dale, Ph.D.: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 13 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 72 Lowenstein, Douglas: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 50 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 123 McMillon, Doug: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 42 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 102 Pilon, Roger, Ph.D., J.D. Testimony .......................................................................................................... 15 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 78 Rich, Michael, M.D., M.P.H.: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 18 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 84 Rosen, Hilary: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 44 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 106 (III) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:09 Mar 11, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 75480.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS IV Page Simmons, Russell: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 68 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 45 Smit, Laura: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 21 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 89 Valenti, Jack: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 47 Prepared statement with attachments ........................................................... 113 APPENDIX Prepared statements submitted for the record: The Media Coalition ......................................................................................... 128 Directors Guild of America .............................................................................. 131 Professor Joanne Cantor, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison ............. 136 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:09 Mar 11, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 75480.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS RATING ENTERTAINMENT RATINGS: HOW WELL ARE THEY WORKING FOR PARENTS AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE THEM? WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2001 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m., in room SD–342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Joseph I. Lieber- man, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. Present: Senators Lieberman, Thompson, Carper, Durbin, and Bunning. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR LIEBERMAN Chairman LIEBERMAN. Good morning. Welcome to this hearing. Let me say that we are here to revisit an issue that parents repeat- edly raise with just about everyone who will listen, and that is the challenge that is facing them in raising healthy children in today’s 500-channel, multiplexed, videogamed, disc-manned universe. Before I proceed, I want to apologize for the quality of my voice today. I am fighting a summer cold, and I am reminded of the old story of the clergyman who, when he rises to give the sermon, says to his congregates, ‘‘As you can hear, I have a terrible cold, and I had thought of not giving a sermon today, but then I decided why should you derive pleasure from my misery?’’ Jack Valenti, it is in that spirit that I go forward with the proceedings. A second preliminary announcement, in the last few days we have had several requests from people who wanted to testify at the hearing, including some members of the House, and it has just been very hard at this date to accommodate those requests. Others came from folks within the entertainment industry. But I have said to them that we will accept their written testimony, that I would be glad to meet with them, and, if it seems to be constructive and worthy, we will convene another hearing on the subject, to give others an opportunity to testify. What I described at the outset, which is the concern of parents around the country today about the effect of the entertainment cul- ture on their children, is a reflection of the quantity of time that children spend consuming and using media. You get a lot of num- bers on this. One of them is an average of 61⁄2 hours a day, which is the number reported by the Annenberg Public Policy Center. But I think we all know it is more than quantity. It is a reflection on (1) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:09 Mar 11, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 75480.TXT SAFFAIRS PsN: SAFFAIRS 2 the quality of the messages about sex and violence that kids are being exposed to by the entertainment