To make the V-chip work, I challenge the broadcast industry to do what movies have done—­to identify your programming in ways that help parents to protect their children.  And I invite the leaders of major media corporations in the entertainment industry to come to the White House next month to work with us in a positive way on concrete ways to improve what our children see on television.  I am ready to work with you.

I say to those who make and market cigarettes:  every year a million children take up smoking, even though it is against the law.  Three hundred thousand of them will have their lives shortened as a result.  Our administration has taken steps to stop the massive marketing campaigns that appeal to our children.  We are simply saying:  Market your products to adults, if you wish, but draw the line on children.

I say to those who are on welfare, and especially to those who have been trapped on welfare for a long time:  For too long our welfare system has undermined the values of family and work, instead of supporting them.  The Congress and I are near agreement on sweeping welfare reform.  We agree on time limits, tough work requirements, and the toughest possible child support enforcement.  But I believe we must also provide child care so that mothers who are required to go to work can do so without worrying about what is happening to their children.

I challenge this Congress to send me a bipartisan welfare reform bill that will really move people from welfare to work and do the right thing by our children.  I will sign it immediately.

Let us be candid about this difficult problem.  Passing a law, even the best possible law, is only a first step.  The next step is to make it work.  I challenge people on welfare to make the most of this opportunity for independence.  I challenge American businesses to give people on welfare the chance to move into the work force.  I applaud the work of religious groups and others who care for the poor.  More than anyone else in our society, they know the true difficulty of the task before us, and they are in a position to help.  Every one of us should join them.  That is the only way we can make real welfare reform a reality in the lives of the American people.

To strengthen the family we must do everything we can to keep the teen pregnancy rate going down.  I am gratified, as I’m sure all Americans are, that it has dropped for two years in a row.  But we all know it is still far too high.

Tonight I am pleased to announce that a group of prominent Americans is responding to that challenge by forming an organization that will support grass-roots community efforts all across our country in a national campaign against teen pregnancy.  And I challenge all of us and every American to join their efforts.

I call on American men and women in families to give greater respect to one another.  We must end the deadly scourge of domestic violence in our country.  And I challenge America’s families to work harder to stay together.  For families who stay together not only do better economically, their children do better as well.