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Families, Children And The Media: The President's Leadership In Working To Give Parents The Tools To Protect Their Children The President, Vice President, First Lady and Mrs. Gore have each worked for years to give parents more tools to control what their children are exposed to in our popular culture. Below are excerpts from some of President Clinton's major statements on this topic. June 30, 1993 Letter to Television Networks on Use of Program Violence Warnings "Millions of parents are rightly concerned that their children are exposed to far too many graphic pictures of murder and mayhem. For the health of our society and the American family, we must continue to find ways to limit the excessive portrayal of violence in our television programming." December 4, 1993 Remarks at the Creative Artists Agency Reception in Beverly Hills, California "There are few things more powerful in any time and place than culture. The ability of culture to elevate or debase is profound. And so I ask you, while you entertain the rest of us, let us together do something to rebuild the bonds of community, to restore the spirit of these children. We must rebuild this country fundamentally. And we need to have the support of people who can shape our culture to do it." January 24, 1995 Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union "For people in the entertainment industry in this country, we applaud your creativity and your worldwide success, and we support your freedom of expression. But you do have a responsibility to assess the impact of your work and to understand the damage that comes from the incessant, repetitive, mindless violence and irresponsible conduct that permeates our media all the time. July 10, 1995 Remarks at the Family and Media Conference in Nashville "It's commonplace to say that most of us believe that there's too much indiscriminate violence in various parts of our media today. I believe the question is, so what? What we ought to be talking about today is what are we all going to do about that?" September 18, 1995 Letter to the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission on the Children's Television Act of 1990 "I believe the public interest should require broadcasters to air at least three hours per week, and preferably more, of quality children's programming at reasonable times of the day." January 23, 1996 Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union "To the media, I say you should create movies and CD's and television shows you'd want your own children and grandchildren to enjoy. I call on Congress to pass the requirement for a V-chip in TV sets so that parents cans screen out programs they believe are inappropriate for their children." February 8, 1996 Statement on Signing the Telecommunications Act of 1996 "I am especially pleased that the Act requires new televisions to be outfitted with the V-chip, which will empower families to choose the kind of programming suitable for their children." you know the system, with 10 the sure have parents to untiol than email what our popular to w culture the As we wrined tellursin wrich a ratures which will