THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

STATEMENT BY VICE PRESIDENT GORE ON TV RATINGS

Today, I met with parent groups and Congressional leaders as part of our effort to follow up on the work we started when we signed the Telecommunications Act that required the V-Chip.

Today's meeting was the next step after the meetings I had last week with family and industry groups. At those meetings, parent groups made it loud and clear that they want additional content based ratings, and industry representatives gave assurances that industry would work with the parent groups to try to resolve this issue.

Both sides have worked hard to reach common ground. I commend them for their effort thus far and I urge them to do what is right for the country and find a way to reach an agreement.

Now, more than ever, it's time for the industry to put the V back in the V-Chip. We need a V -- a V to tell us when our youngest children could be exposed to violence.

I remain hopeful that the television industry will decide to add V, S and L to the ratings, and that they will make sure that parents are given reliable information about the level of violence in Y-7 rated programs -- the rating for acceptable programming for children over age 7. In return, we think it is only fair that we allow sufficient time for the V-chip and the ratings system to work in America's homes.

To ensure that we have time to resolve this complex issue, I am also announcing that the Administration will officially ask the FCC to move back the date of the FCC's hearing on television ratings now scheduled for Friday.

An agreement that will give parents more information about television programming to help parents make choices about what is appropriate for their children to watch is within our reach. Let's seize this opportunity.

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