With the release last month of its report on Violent Television Programming and Its Impact on Children, the FCC teed up the issue of regulating televised violence and tossed it over to Congress with a recommendation that lawmakers go ahead and swing for the fences. And Congress appears ready to oblige, although not necessarily in the way some at the FCC had originally envisioned.
You will recall that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin used the FCC’s violence report as another opportunity to engage in his monomaniacal, Moby Dick-like quest to impose a la carte regulation on cable and satellite operators. Martin argued that “Requiring cable and satellite television providers to offer programming in a more a la carte manner would be a more content neutral means for Congress to regulate violent programming and therefore would raise fewer constitutional issues.” But it doesn’t appear that the chairman is going to get his whale this time around.
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On Monday, October 9th, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) delivered a major address about Internet content and online child safety that was intended to serve as a sort of call-to-arms for policymakers, parents and industry to get more serious about the issue.
In his wide-ranging remarks, Lieberman bemoaned the relentless pace of technological change and how the Internet and digital media technologies were making it increasingly difficult for parents to protect children from objectionable material or, worse yet, child predators. “The Internet is a wondrous, revolutionary medium,” Lieberman said. “But there is too often a thin line between the awe-inspiring and the simply awful, and with each new technological breakthrough, it seems that the opportunities for our children to fall into that awful gap grow greater and graver.”
In this essay, I will dissect Sen. Lieberman’s manifesto and provide a detailed response to his assertions and proposals. I feel this is necessary because his address touches on many of the major themes and proposals that are framing the debate over Internet regulation that is taking place in America today.
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I’ve just released a new paper entitled “Fact and Fiction in the Debate over Video Game Regulation.” At the state and local level, over 75 measures have been proposed that would regulate the electronic gaming sector in same fashion. More importantly, another new federal bill was introduced recently that would establish a federal enforcement regime for video games sales and require ongoing regulatory scrutiny of industry practices. S. 2126, the “Family Entertainment Protection Act” (FEPA), was introduced last December by Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Joe Lieberman (D-CT), and Evan Bayh (D-IN) to limit the exposure of children to violent video games.
In my essay, I address several of the most common myths or misperceptions that are driving this push to regulate the electronic gaming sector. My general conclusions are as follows:
>> The industry’s ratings system is the most sophisticated, descriptive, and effective ratings system ever devised by any major media sector in America.
>> The vast majority of video games sold each year do not contain intense violence or sexual themes.
>> Just as every state law attempting to regulate video games so far has been struck down as unconstitutional, so too will the FEPA.
>> The FEPA could derail the industry’s voluntary ratings system and necessitate the adoption of a federally mandated regulatory regime / ratings system.
>> No correlation between video games and aggressive behavior has been proven. Moreover, almost every social / cultural indicator of importance has been improving in recent years and decades even as media exposure and video game use among youth has increased.
>> Video games might have some beneficial effects–especially of a cathartic nature–that critics often overlook. And, contrary to what some critics claim, violent themes and images have been part of literature and media for centuries.
I encourage you to read the entire paper for more details. It can be found online here: http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/pop13.7videogames.pdf
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.