In advance of the Senate Commerce Committee markup of a
violence research bill on Tuesday, the National Cable and Telecommunications
Association and the Motion Picture Association of America jointly expressed
their support for the bill, as well as pointing out that they are not waiting
around for the results to address the issue.
"We welcome further academic examination of the reasons
behind societal violence, as proposed by Senator Rockefeller, and will continue
to be productive partners in the conversation about culture in America,"
they said in a joint statement.
Both associations early on said they would be part of the
conversation about real world and media violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook
school shooting tragedy.
But the trade groups also made the point that they were
already engaged in providing more educational and parental control tools. "Our
industries have a longstanding commitment to providing parents with the
resources, education and tools they need to make appropriate family viewing and
entertainment decisions. In recent months, we have launched new tools that
provide guidance for families on TV and film ratings, TV parental controls, and
media literacy resources," they said. "We're also using new public
service announcements airing nationwide; in-theater public service advertising;
updated websites at TheTVBoss.org and FilmRatings.com; and a newly released app
for mobile use, The TV Boss."
The violence research bill requires the National
Academy of Sciences to direct the Federal Trade Commission, Federal
Communications Commission and Department of Health and Human Service to study
the impact of violent video games and violent video programming on children and
figure out if there is a causal connection between either and real-world
violence.
