Senate Passes Children and Media Research and Advancement Act

With fewer than sixty days remaining until mid-term elections, the United States Senate has passed legislation directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study media effects on children.

Spearheaded by numerous outspoken critics of violent video games and their alleged effects on children, the bill authorizes the CDC, an organization with the mandate to “prevent and control infectious and chronic diseases, injuries, workplace hazards, disabilities, and environmental health threats”, to manage studies in conjunction with the NIH and National Academy of Sciences to research the effects of media such as video games on children.

Backers of the bill, originally introduced in October of 2005, include Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rick Santorum (R-PA), names that include two senators planning presidential bids, one that recently failed to receive his party’s nomination for reelection, one embroiled in the Jack Abramaoff scandal, and several trailing in uphill reelection campaigns. In the immediate wake of a tragic school shooting in Montreal, and another planned attack thwarted in Wisconsin, the bill S:1902 passed unanimously.