About

About
H.R. 3676:  Family Friendly Flights Act of 2007

Rep. Heath Shuler [D-NC11]
U.S. Representative, North Carolina’s 11th District
To contact Heath Shuler, visit his official website.
http://shuler.house.gov/

9/26/2007–Bill Introduced.
Family Friendly Flights Act of 2007 – Requires an air carrier that provides publicly viewable entertainment screens on which violent in-flight programming is displayed to provide a child safe viewing area for child passengers who are under the age of 13 and for at least one adult travel companion per child. Requires: (1) all unaccompanied children under the age of 13 to be seated in the child safe viewing area; and (2) an air carrier, ticket agent, or their employees to offer an adult traveling with a child under the age of 13 the opportunity to request seating in the child safe viewing area.

Original Text of Bill:

H.R. 3676:   Family Friendly Flights Act of 2007

110th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 3676

To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide for a child safe viewing area within which covered air carriers shall not display violent in-flight programming.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 26, 2007

Mr. SHULER (for himself, Mr. JONES of North Carolina, Mr. DONNELLY, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. HILL, Mr. CARDOZA, Mr. WAMP, Mr. SOUDER, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. BARROW, and Mr. LINCOLN DAVIS of Tennessee) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

A BILL

To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide for a child safe viewing area within which covered air carriers shall not display violent in-flight programming.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Family Friendly Flights Act of 2007?.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:

(1) Children are a captive audience for publicly viewable in-flight entertainment on commercial aviation flights.

(2) Children under the age of 13 are often exposed to non-cartoon images of murder, torture, general violence and other images terrifying to most children while traveling on domestic flights in the United States.

SEC. 3. CHILD SAFE VIEWING AREA.

(a) In General- Subchapter I of chapter 417 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

Sec. 41724. Child Safe Viewing Area

(a) Establishment of Child Safe Viewing Area- If a covered air carrier provides publicly viewable entertainment screens on which violent in-flight programming is displayed, such carrier shall provide a child safe viewing area for all passengers who are children under the age of 13 and for at least 1 adult travel companion per child.

(b) Allocation of Seating-

(1) PRIORITY OF SEATING FOR UNACCOMPANIED MINORS- All unaccompanied children under the age of 13 shall be seated in the child safe viewing area.

(2) OPPORTUNITY TO REQUEST SEATING IN CHILD SAFE VIEWING AREA- A covered air carrier, a ticket agent, or an individual employed by a covered air carrier or ticket agent, when issuing a ticket to an adult traveling with a child under the age of 13, shall offer the opportunity to request seating in the child safe viewing area.

(c) Definitions- For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) CHILD SAFE VIEWING AREA- The term `child safe viewing area’ means an area on an aircraft operated by a covered air carrier in which there are no publicly viewable entertainment screens displaying violent in-flight programming located within 10 rows of seating of such area.

(2) COVERED AIR CARRIER- The term `covered air carrier’ means an air carrier that provides scheduled passenger interstate air transportation or scheduled passenger intrastate air transportation.

(3) PUBLICLY VIEWABLE ENTERTAINMENT SCREEN-

(A) IN GENERAL- The term `publicly viewable entertainment screen’ means a video screen prominently located in the passenger compartment of an aircraft and viewable by more than 3 passengers, including all screens located in the aisles and on bulkhead walls.

(B) EXCEPTION- The term `publicly viewable entertainment screen’ does not include a personal video screen located on the back of a seat or a stowable screen intended for single-passenger use.

(4) VIOLENT IN-FLIGHT PROGRAMMING- The term `violent in-flight programming’ means–

(A) motion pictures that were either not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) or were rated PG-13, R, or NC-17 by the MPAA; or

(B) video programming that, when originally distributed for transmission through broadcast, a cable system, or satellite carrier, was not rated or was rated TV-PG-V, TV-13-V, TV-14-V, TV-MA-V, or otherwise rated as a program that parents may find unsuitable for younger children on the basis of violence.’.

(b) Conforming Amendment- The analysis for chapter 417 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end of the items relating to subchapter I the following:

41724. Child safe viewing area.’.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

The amendments made by section 3 shall take effect on January 1, 2008.

House Proceeding 02-06-07 on Feb 6th, 2007 :: 0:09:05 to 0:10:49
Total video length: 6 hours 2 minutes

COSPONSORS(16), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]:

Rep Barrow, John [GA-12] – 9/26/2007
Rep Boren, Dan [OK-2] – 10/17/2007
Rep Cardoza, Dennis A. [CA-18] – 9/26/2007
Rep Davis, Lincoln [TN-4] – 9/26/2007
Rep Donnelly, Joe [IN-2] – 9/26/2007
Rep Duncan, John J., Jr. [TN-2] – 9/26/2007
Rep Emerson, Jo Ann [MO-8] – 10/17/2007
Rep Gordon, Bart [TN-6] – 10/17/2007
Rep Hill, Baron P. [IN-9] – 9/26/2007
Rep Jones, Walter B., Jr. [NC-3] – 9/26/2007
Rep McIntyre, Mike [NC-7] – 9/26/2007
Rep Miller, Brad [NC-13] – 10/17/2007
Rep Price, David E. [NC-4] – 9/26/2007
Rep Souder, Mark E. [IN-3] – 9/26/2007
Rep Wamp, Zach [TN-3] – 9/26/2007
Rep Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [FL-20] – 9/26/2007

UPDATE: This bill never became law. This bill was proposed in a previous session of Congress. Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven’t passed are cleared from the books. Members often reintroduce bills that did not come up for debate under a new number in the next session.

For official bill summary & status please visit:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h3676:

Articles in the press about this bill:

Rating the Family Friendly Flights Act
Law, if passed, would force airlines to offer separate seating area

By Harriet Baskas Travel writer
msnbc.com contributor msnbc.com contributor
updated 10/4/2007 10:00:16 AM ET

Seeing Christopher Walken in a movie gives me nightmares. And I think the saucer-eyed Puss-in-Boots who hangs out with Shrek is creepy, not cute.

So when I’m on an airplane that’s showing a films starring Walken or that darn cat, I try to read a book and ignore the movie entirely.

It doesn’t always work. So I understand why parents of small children worry when the in-flight screens drop down and a movie with potentially disturbing images pop up.

[for full article please visit link below]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21101756/ns/travel-travel_tips/

Bill to Restrict In-Flight Movies
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: September 26, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/us/26rating.html

Other sites that maybe of interest:
Author: kidsafe on November 6, 2011
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