Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has introduced legislation in Congress to authorize research on the impact of violent video games and programming on children. The bill, S. 134, entitled The Violent Content Research Act of 2013, is co-sponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Dean Heller (R-NV) and Tom Coburn (R-OK).
The legislation directs the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services to jointly make arrangements within 30 days of enactment with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a comprehensive investigation of whether exposure to violent video games and violent video programming, has harmful effects on children.
The study is to investigate whether such exposure to violence (1) causes children to act aggressively or causes other measurable harm to children; (2) has a disproportionately harmful effect on children already prone to aggressive behavior, or other identifiable groups of children; or (3) has a harmful effect that is distinguishable from any negative effects produced by other types of media. The study should also probe whether any harm identified in these investigations has a direct and long-lasting impact on a child's well-being. The Academy is to report the results of the study and its recommendations for future research to Congress and to the administrative agencies within 15 months.
The bill was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportion.
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