evels of violence. While organizations such as National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV) had been monitoring for years, the industries had tended to disregard these efforts as tainted. They assumed that groups concerned about television violence could not or would not conduct unbiased, reliable research. UCLA was chosen to monitor broadcast television, while Mediascope was contracted to do the same for cable television. When their reports were issued, both found levels of televisions violence that corresponded to what had been reported by NCTV. Both reports also agreed that the level of violence was too high and much of what was broadcast was inappropriate for young children.
             Also, during the summer of 1993, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) began to organize a task force dealing with the issue of television violence. Ultimately this group included both media activist groups and large national organizations like the American Medical Association and the National PTA. Initially the Senator's intention was not for legislative action but to merely put the broadcast and cable industry on notice that this was a serious problem and required action on their part. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) had been actively working for the passage of V-Chip legislation in the house. Senator Conrad introduced the Children's Media Protection Act of 1995 in the Senate. As a result of their collaborative efforts a section of this proposed legislation, popularly known as the V-Chip legislation, became part of the Telecommunications Act.
             The law requires manufacturers to install a "V-Chip" in new television sets and requires that, if the networks establish ratings, they must transmit these ratings so they may be recognized by the V-Chip. The networks are urged to devise their own rating system within one year. The FCC is required to review the rating system devised and if the system is not established, or if the FCC rejects it, the FCC is permitted to choose a pan...