Violence Regulation

Children and teens spend about as much time with media as they do sleeping, and the overexposure could take a toll on their health.

The Federal Communications Commission has 1.45 million pending indecency complaints and 12,049 open cases.

The Federal Trade Commission today issued a report that examines the incidence of sexually and violently explicit content in online virtual worlds. The congressionally mandated report, "Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks," urges operators of virtual worlds to take a number of steps to keep explicit content away from children and teens, and recommends that parents familiarize themselves with the virtual worlds their kids visit.

Marketers of violent music, movies, and video games can do more to restrict the promotion of these products to children, according to the seventh in a series of Federal Trade Commission reports on marketing violent entertainment to children.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the appointment of Steven Waldman, a highly respected Internet entrepreneur and journalist, to lead an agency-wide initiative to assess the state of media in these challenging economic times and make recommendations designed to ensure a vibrant media landscape.

New research from the Parents Television Council finds that storylines depicting violence against females are increasing and being shown more graphically and in ways that have not been seen in the history of television.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) indicated Wednesday that he would continue to push for government oversight of violent media content.

The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that a California law restricting the sales and rental of violent video games to minors and imposing labeling requirements is too restrictive and violates free speech guarantees.

Many youth in the United States have fully integrated the Internet into their daily lives. For them, the Internet is a positive and powerful space for socializing, learning, and engaging in public life.

Sure, COPA is dead, but what happens next? Will Congress once again beat against the tide and enact yet another Internet censorship law? After all, COPA was Congress's answer to the Supreme Courts 9-0 decision striking down the Communications Decency Act.