Lieberman Continues Push to Regulate US Entertainment Marketing
US Senator Joe Lieberman met with movie studio officials yesterday and told them the entertainment industry hasn't lived up to its pledge to quit marketing violent and sexually explicit material to children throughout movies, video games and music.
Lieberman, D-Conn., said he would introduce a bill next week to give the Federal Trade Commission authority to fine companies for such advertising. Through a spokesman, Lieberman said he was following through on a pledge he made last year as a vice presidential candidate to propose a law if the industry failed to regulate itself. That promise came after an FTC report that found children are targeted by advertising for adult-oriented movies, music and video games. The FTC called for better self-regulation.
Lieberman is a longtime critic of the entertainment industry. He faced criticism last year by some who said he had softened his stance because Hollywood donors gave lots of money to Al Gore's presidential campaign and the Democratic Party.
The movie, television and music industries contributed $24 million to the Democratic Party in the past election cycle, compared to $14 million for Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The White House did not immediately return a call seeking comment. A spokesman for the FTC said he could not comment because he had not seen Lieberman's proposal. Gerstein said Lieberman still would be willing to pull back the bill if the industry offered a plan for policing itself.
"If they don't, we'll do what we can to pass this legislation into law," Gerstein said.
Valenti told Lieberman that his proposed bill would face First Amendment challenges, according to MPAA spokesman Rich Taylor. Valenti read from a letter written last year by FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky, who acknowledged there are free-speech concerns to such regulation.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., held hearings in response to the FTC report. Valenti had testified and acknowledged movie executives were wrong to show R-rated movies to focus groups that included children as young as 10, but said the industry could police itself.
Studios agreed to 12 initiatives to improve the movie rating system, including each studio hiring a compliance officer to make sure they followed through. The FTC is scheduled to release a follow-up report assessing the success of the initiatives, possibly as early as next week.
11th August, 2000
FTC report: Entertainment industry markets violent material to youth
The movie, video game and music industries aggressively market to underage youths violent products that carry adult ratings, federal regulators say. A report by the Federal Trade Commission says that even movies rated R — which require an adult to accompany children under 17 to the theater — and video games that carry an M rating for 17 and over are routinely targeted toward younger people.
Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore seized the issue for his campaign, calling for a voluntary "cease-fire" in marketing inappropriate material to children and threatening federal action if the industry fails to respond.
The FTC pointed to materials submitted by the industry, showing intentional plans to promote its products to underage audiences. One document disclosed that a company's target audience for M-rated video games was boys 12-17. Despite the age rating, "the younger the audience, the more likely they are to be influenced by TV advertising," the document said. A marketing plan for an R-rated movie stated its purpose was to "make sure everyone between the ages of 12-18 was exposed to the film." Company names were edited out.
"It's their documents. They knew what they were doing," said FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky.
President Clinton, who commissioned the investigation, challenged the entertainment industry to be responsive.
"The American people will give, I think, the entertainment industry a period now to fix this but something has to be done," Clinton said, during a campaign-style appearance in Scarsdale, N.Y., with his wife, Hillary, who is running for the Senate. "They say these rating systems mean something. They can't turn around and advertise to people that shouldn't see this stuff."
The commission is not pressing for more legislation, walking a careful line not to trigger First Amendment concerns. But the FTC wants the industry to expand voluntary codes prohibiting such practices and to sanction companies that run afoul of these guidelines.
Gore and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, said that if elected, they would propose legislation or a new regulatory authority to sanction the entertainment industry if it didn't stop marketing violence to children within six months.
"If the industry makes a promise not to market inappropriate material to children but then does so, it could be guilty of false advertising," they said in a statement.
Ari Fleischer, spokesman for Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, said the Texas governor "believes the entertainment industry has to take personal responsibility for the products it provides to our children. And parents also have a role to play. We're all in this together."
Pitofsky has asked his staff to study whether laws governing deceptive and unfair trade practices would apply and if enforcement action could be brought against companies, if the behavior continues.
The movie and video game industries have voluntary age-based rating code systems. The recording industry has a more general label that warns of explicit content in music.
Of 44 R-rated movies studied by the FTC, 35 were targeted to children under 17. Of 118 games carrying an M rating, 83 targeted children under 17 and all of the 55 music recordings with explicit-content labels were targeted to children under 17.
Video game makers stress that more than 70% of their customers are over 18. According to the Interactive Digital Software Association, the industry trade group, adults buy nine of every 10 video and computer games sold in the United States. Only 7% of video games sold and rated since 1995 fall into the mature category.
But public interest groups said the new study could expose efforts by the industries to circumvent their own labeling system. For example, creating children's toys based on an R-rated movie enables the industry "to go right ahead in a very surreptitious way to market to kids," said Kathryn Montgomery, president of the Center for Media Education.
SOURCE: Associated Press
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