Helen K. Liebowitz

The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) is a volunteer association that works to improve the education and welfare of America’s children. The following viewpoint is taken from testimony presented before Congress in 1997 by Helen K. Liebowitz, a member of the National PTA Board of Directors. Liebowitz states that the PTA supports federal legislation designed to limit children’s exposure to television violence. Such government action, she maintains, does not necessarily constitute censorship, which the PTA opposes. She argues that self-regulation by the television industry would be ideal, but the industry has not been responsive to parents’ concerns. Stricter government laws curtailing violent content on television during times when children are most likely to be watching may become necessary if high levels of television violence continue to be transmitted into America...