Social Policy
Study Finds Harm in TV Violence	A one-year study of television programming, sponsored by the cable TV industry, has concluded that "psychologically harmful" violence is pervasive on broadcast and cable TV programs. It found that 57 percent of television programs contained some violence and that the risks to viewers involve "learning to behave violently, becoming more desensitized to the harmful consequences of violence and becoming more fearful of being attacked." Among the report's findings: Perpetrators of violent acts on TV go unpunished 73 percent of the time. Some 47 percent of all violent interactions show no harm to victims and 58 percent depict no pain -- with only 16 percent depicting longer-term consequences, such as financial or emotional harm. Some 25 percent of violent incidents involve the use of handguns. Only four percent of programs emphasize nonviolent alternatives to solving problems. Premium channels, including HBO and Showtime, were found to have the highest proportion of violent programs -- 85 percent of their shows. The study recommended that producers and others in the television business limit the amount of violence, show more negative consequences and increases the number of viewer advisories. For policy makers, it recommended the use of program-blocking technology and said any effort to restrict violence on TV should take account of the kinds of depictions that pose the most harmful consequences. The study suggested that parents "recognize that different kinds of programs pose different risks," and that they watch TV with their children and critically evaluate it with them. Source: Paul Fahri, "Study Finds Real Harm in TV Violence, Washington Post, February 6, 1996.
Government Mandates Lead to Cable TV Pornography	In 1984, Congress required cable operators to provide access channels open to all comers. Not only civic groups, but pornographers, prostitutes, Nazis and Ku Klux Klanners have taken advantage of the opportunity - often at the expense of cable subscribers. There are two types of access channels, public access and leased access. Cable operators provide free production facilities and air time for public access. In many cities, they can charge basic cable subscribers a fee to pay for it. Recent public access programming has included such programs as: A woman in Columbus, Ohio describing how she wanted to tie a man by his genitals and administer electric shock. Two dozen naked people in Seattle, Wash., discussing censorship while vulgar words crawled across the bottom of the screen. X-rated scenes of oral and homosexual sex in Kalamazoo, Mich. Any cable system with more than 36 channels must also offer at least 10 percent of its channels for leased access. These channels can carry advertising, so they are filled with ads for 900-number phone sex, skin magazines and prostitutes. Although cable operators can reject obscene shows, they can't reject merely indecent ones. Congress changed the law in 1992 to give operators that authority, but this limited step to clean up cable is under challenge in federal court. Source: Suzanne Oliver, "The Porn Mandate," Forbes, August 28, 1995.
V-Chip's Usefullness Limited	Both the House and Senate have passed telecommunications reform bills with provisions requiring television manufacturers to include a programmable microchip in new TV sets with screens 13 inches or larger - raising the cost of a new set by as much as $50. The idea of the V-chip is to allow parents to block channels, time slots or programs according to ratings for violence, sex and language which television broadcasters and cable operators are to devise. There are already about 20 models of TV sets or control devices on the market that let viewers block channels and times slots. President Clinton has expressed his support, and the final bill will likely contain the V-Chip requirement, although it is doomed to failure for several practical reasons. It would be decades before every set in use in the country had a V-Chip in it, not counting sets smaller than 13 inches. Any ratings system for television will be virtually impossible to maintain, since instead of the 600 or so hours of film rated by the Motion Picture Association, a single 24-hour-a-day channel airs almost 9,000 hours of programming a year. Since violence is a concern, hundreds of thousands of hours of old television programming must be rated and made blockable as well. Although the industry is supposed to voluntarily produce the ratings, it is not clear what will happen if politicians disagree or consumers find them unreliable. Finally, the children most likely to be negatively affected by television are the least likely to have parents who would decide what their children should be watching. *Source: Nick Gillespie, "Chip Off the Block," Reason, November 1995.*

Social Policy

Study Finds Harm in TV Violence

Government Mandates Lead to Cable TV Pornography

V-Chip's Usefullness Limited