Tuesday, 17 May 2011 09:12
House Bill 3671, authored principally by Rep. Winston Castelo (2nd District, Quezon City) to be known as "Children's Media Protection Act," shall establish a television violence and non-educational sexual themes rating code.
"The existing laws lack the required provisions to block violent and sexually themed non-educational programming to protect the welfare of children," Castelo said.
Castelo said the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), is not authorized to prescribe ratings for violence and non-educational sexual themes in television programming and rules for signals containing specifications for blocking violent and sexually themed non-educational programming.
Even Republic Act 7925 (Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines), which gives authority to the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) for broadcast operations of public communications entities, does not specify such an authorization for the Commission, Castelo said.
Castelo cited a report of the American Medical Association showing the adverse effects of televised violence on child development and a marked increase in the level of aggressive behavior among children who view violence on television.
"In a May 1999 a report of the Hany Frank Guggenheim Foundation in the United States found that there is an irrefutable connection between the amount of violence depicted in the television programs watched by children and increased aggression among them," Castelo said.
The measure requires the MTRCB and NTC to pass rules and regulations prohibiting the broadcast from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on commercial television and public telecommunications entities, including broadcast by cable operators, of programming that contains violent and obscene scenes for children in accordance with the established rating code.
The bill also mandates the MTRCB and NTC to jointly prescribe in consultation with the television broadcasters, cable operators, concerned non-government organizations for children, and interest individuals from the private sector, rules for rating the level of violence and non-educational sexual themes in television programming.
source: http://www.congress.gov.ph
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