In the materials it prepared for the hearings, the CRTC recognized that a major part of the solution to television violence is education about the negative impact it has on children, and awareness of what citizens can do about it.

Encouraged by this recognition, many media literacy organizations across the country came forward to talk about the current state of media education in Canadian schools. Just saying that media literacy is a good thing, they told the CRTC, will not make it happen. They urged the CRTC to find new ways to support media literacy education, and called for a comprehensive strategy that would include the following:

• The CRTC should regulate media literacy content on TV, so that educators can teach about television through television. Just as broadcasters and cable services must now provide Canadian programs, it was suggested they should also have media literacy content regulations imposed on them by the CRTC.
• The CRTC should ask all members of the television industry to contribute to a Media Literacy Education Fund, to support the development of media education materials. (In fact, witnesses from many backgrounds thought that those who profit from violent TV programming should pay a "violence tax," which would go toward media literacy activities.)
• The CRTC should consider licensing a new specialty television channel devoted to media literacy. The channel, which could be made available on cable television, would provide a valuable educational tool across the country.
• The CRTC should establish a clearinghouse for complaints. Media literacy is not only about understanding the media, but also knowing that individual actions can alter content - as long as consumers know how to complain, who to complain to, and what systems are in place to respond to their concerns. Media literacy experts urged the CRTC to demand that the television industry provide a more effective way for viewers to voice their concerns.
  
• The CRTC should require cable operators and broadcasters to give blanket permission to educators and media literacy teachers to videotape programs for use as teaching tools in the classroom. At present, Canadian copyright laws prevent teachers from doing this. Educators ask: How can students study a subject as current as the media, without concrete examples?

Media literacy witnesses commented on other ways to help parents regain control of the television:

• Most thought that merely asking cable operators and broadcasters to block out certain programs would not be effective, since children will usually get access to violent media in other ways - through video games or at the video store, for example.
• Many supported a program-classification system that would give parents better information about TV programming and technologies like the V-chip. But many felt that spending time and effort trying to perfect technology-based solutions was short-sighted, when it was agreed that education was the most effective solution.