STAND. COM. REP. NO. 509

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 433

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 433 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SCREEN TIME AWARENESS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Department of Health to create and host a website and launch a public education campaign on the effects of screen time on children and teens.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and ten individuals.

Your Committees find a growing body of empirical data and anecdotal accounts suggest that time spent in front of screens has a negative impact on children's physical, emotional, and cognitive health. Evidence also suggests that excessive screen time may have an important impact on the high increase in anxiety, depression, and suicide among teens. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics have nationally recommended strategies to reduce child and teen screen time, including increasing leisure-time physical activity as an alternative to screen time and having a family media plan in place.

According to testimony from the Department of Health, existing evidence-based interventions, such as an extensive social marketing campaign conducted by the CDC, have shown that using positive messaging to motivate participation in physical activity has been more effective than promoting the health costs of inactivity. Launching a similar campaign would align the Department's efforts with nationally-recognized, evidence based social marketing strategies.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring the Department of Health to create and implement a social marketing campaign, targeting children and their families and based on proven interventions, to reduce child and teen screen time;

(2) Removing language that would have required the Department of Health to create and host a website and launch a public education campaign on the effects of screen time for children and teens; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 433, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 433, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Human Services,

________________________________ RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair