Summary of Recommendations

Report of the Law and Government Division,
for the Library of Parliament, Oct 1997
Susan Alter
Republished with permission

The North American public's concern over the potentially harmful effects of violent television programming dates back to at least 1952, when the U.S. Congress held its first hearings on this issue. Over the years, while technological advancements, such as computer-enhanced special effects and VCRs, enabled violence on the small screen to become more graphic and pervasive, research into the actual impact of such imagery mushroomed.

Although the research produced conflicting conclusions, the dominant opinion today is that television violence does have a negative influence, especially on impressionable viewers such as children. The film and television industry, which tended in the past steadfastly to dismiss concerns about violent entertainment as unfounded and unproven, has been under considerable pressure in the 1990s to take positive steps to deal with such programming. Jack Valenti, representing the Motion Picture Association of America, one of the most powerful voices in the industry, told an American Senate Committee examining television violence in 1993 that the industry would no longer deny that a problem exists: "We are past that. We want to challenge this issue responsibly, without doing a political minuet around a metaphysical maypole."

This publication will summarize the key findings of research into violence on television and outline the measures being taken in Canada to deal with the problem. The regulatory approach of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and related concerns about freedom of expression will be among the specific topics discussed.

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