William Tauzin: “Ninety percent of Americans in the USA polls say they are concerned about violence. I think 100 percent of us in this…”

“Ninety percent of Americans in the USA polls say they are concerned about violence. I think 100 percent of us in this Chamber certainly ought to be concerned about the violence on television, but there are technologies for parents to use right now. Here is one, the Telecommander, and there are others where parents can buy equipment to put on all the televisions, the old ones and the new ones, not just the new ones that are going to be sold, and, if my colleagues do not plan to handcuff their kids to the new television when they leave the house, the V-chip is not going to do them any good. There are other technologies on the market. The networks are prepared to help these inventors, these patenters, to bring to us products like this where we can program our set, where the Government is not setting a program for us, but where parents are doing it, and, when we come right down to it, the choice between the Markey amendment and the Coburn-Tauzin amendment and the Molinari amendment is whether or not my colleagues believe parents ought to be making the choice about what their children see or whether my colleagues believe the Government ought to be doing that with a V-chip installed in every new set that will not work anyhow unless somebody is willing to chain their children to the old set. Mr. Chairman, kids are pretty smart.…”