A Fight for Values: Protecting Our Children

Children and the Media

As I travel across the state, many parents tell me they are concerned about the negative impact of popular culture on our children. Many video games, television shows, music recordings, movies and even television advertising glamorize drug use, violence, and sexual activity.

It’s hard enough to be a parent these days without this barrage of violent and suggestive images.

Now there is more evidence these concerns are justified. A research group called The Third Way recently released a report showing that pornography is increasingly pervasive on the Internet and much of it is targeted at children. This study found that children aged 12 to 17 are now the largest consumers of pornography. The average child is first exposed to pornography on the Web by the age of 11. Clearly, unscrupulous Web site operators are trying to lure children with inappropriate material just to make a quick buck.

Based on this research, I worked with several of my Senate colleagues to introduce legislation to protect children when they are on line. It would require adult Web sites to use age verification technology so that no one under the age of 18 can enter adult Web sites. It would establish an Internet Safety and Child Protection Trust fund to give law enforcement the tools they need to go after those who prey on children via the Internet. The trust fund would be supported by a 25 percent excise tax on Internet pornography. A more complete summary of that bill is attached.

I have also asked a number of North Dakotans who work with, or are concerned about, children and families to participate in an Advisory Group on Children and the Media. The group’s goal is to develop tools to help parents and educators shield children from harmful content. We had our first meeting in Bismarck on September 1st. Participants included parents, educators, health care professionals, youth group leaders, children’s service providers, law enforcement experts and members of the business community.

I have found this kind of working group to be a productive way to tackle difficult issues. In the early 1990s, I asked North Dakotans to make suggestions about how to give parents more control over violence on television.

That working group led me to introduce legislation to require every new television to have a v-chip and networks to rate TV programs. This legislation was passed as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. As a result, all new televisions today come equipped with a v-chip, allowing parents to block objectionable programming. I am pleased to see that cable and satellite television operators are now providing parents with blocking technology as well. A new organization called Pause Parent Play has created a central Web site with information for parents and others about how to use these technologies, along with information about ratings systems for movies, music and video games.

I have also taken other steps to protect our families from media violence. For example, I cosponsored an amendment to the Violent and Repeat Juvenile Offender Accountability and Rehabilitation Act in 1999 to require the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to study the effects of television, movies, video games, Internet content, and music lyrics on child development and youth violence. The FTC has subsequently provided Congress with four reports on violence in the media. These reports are important because they provide information to the public about this problem, thus helping hold producers of these products accountable for their products.

I know many people are concerned about broadcasts of indecent live materials and profane language on public airwaves. In January 2005, I worked with Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, to introduce legislation to raise the fine levied against broadcasters who air obscene, indecent, or profane material.

I welcome your thoughts and suggestions about other steps we can take to protect our children from inappropriate material. Please e-mail me through this Web site.

Parents and those who work with children have an incredibly important, underappreciated job. They are working not only to develop and protect our children’s physical and intellectual well-being, but they are also shaping the values and character of the next generation. I am committed to ensuring they have support for this important work.

The Internet Safety and Child Protection Act

• Requires Age Verification Adult websites will be required to conduct the online equivalent of I.D. checks, using age-verification software. This technology is currently used by other Web sites that sell products that are inappropriate for minors, such as cigarettes and alcohol.

• Establishes an Internet Safety and Child Protection Trust Fund This fund will centralize and coordinate the allocation of federal resources in support of efforts on the part of law enforcement and others to combat Internet- and pornography-related crimes against children. Trust Fund resources will also support initiatives that give parents more tools to monitor their kids’ online activities and help them stay safe such as improved filtering and blocking technologies, and educational strategies for teaching children safe behavior when on line.

• Forces Pornographers to Pay the Costs of Child Protection The Internet Safety and Child Protection Trust Fund will not be deficit-financed or financed from taxes paid by working Americans. Rather, the Act imposes a 25% federal excise tax on Internet pornography transactions to finance the Trust Fund.

The Right Policy for Parents, Children, and Law Enforcement

• Child Protection Although the Internet has become an important source of information, communication and entertainment in our society, it can also be a dangerous place for unprotected children. Child pornographers use the Internet to lure children and to peddle their products. Over one six week period, 140,000 child pornography images were posted on the Internet. Approximately 20 new children appear on pornography sites every month, many of them kidnapped and sold into sex.

• Taxing Internet Pornography The Internet pornography industry now earns as much as the major television networks combined. Some estimate Internet sales generate at least $12 billion in sales. The rapid rise in the size and influence of this industry, however, has created enormous costs for parents and for law enforcement. Thus, just as the tobacco industry is taxed to defray the social costs associated with smoking, Internet pornographers should be taxed to pay for the steps that society must take to cope with the consequences that result when pornographers pursue quick profits through the promotion of sex without limits online.