Media Rating

760 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of media on younger generation

Our society is more involved in media use than ever before. Ratings are no longer restrictive or helpful. However, the problem with media ratings lies in the blame parents try to inflict upon video game, movie, and television companies. Parents alone have the responsibility of senoring what their children see. First, companies make an immense amount of profit from movie releases, game sales, and television airings. Unless the amount of money brought in changes the companies will have no reason to change their methods. Second, parents need to rely on more than just ratings if they want a truly accurate portrayal of what material their children may be subject to. Finally, even if the rating changes the actual content in question will remain …show more content…

Movies and games with large quantities of violence, pornographic or sexual content, and profanity would not be produced if they did not bring in a gargantuan amount of money.According to boxofficemojo.com studios make about fifty-five percent of the final gross income. Considering annual box office profits produce millions of dollars the media industry is very profitable. Parents need to realize that those who are making a lot of money will not be inclined to alter their methods of success. Unless people stop watching these movies, playing these games, or reviewing these shows the content or rating of such will remain the same. Many may argue that it is the government's job to decide what things should be rated and it is true the government can certainly play a crutial part in what is shown on screens. However, once the government starts limiting and restricting what is allowed they begin to infringe upon the first ammendment right of free …show more content…

Certainly it is not enough to demand ratings be changed because no matter how drastically the rating changes the inappropriate content will not. Companies may comply and change a rating to a different age audience. Will that actually alter the content the movie, game, or show in question displays? It will absolutely not change. Of course there is material that is highly inappropriate for anyone-children or adults. Parents alone have the responsibility to sensor what their children see. "Where there are rules, often they aren't enforced or they apply only to how many hours children watch TV, not to content. In each medium, there is a circular argument. Parents look to producers and the government for guidelines and regulations, the government looks to the producers and the industry to self-censor, and producers expect parents to make their own decisions regarding their

Show More
Related

  • Film Analysis: The Lion King

    2459 Words  | 5 Pages

    Although Valenti and the Rating System's advocates claim that parents should have the final choice in what their children view, the system may, in practice, obstruct that purpose for parents who decide that their children should see some films. For films with the controversial NC-17 rating, the theatre is prevented from letting young John Small and his under-aged ilk from seeing a film despite his parents' permission. In fact, had John actually been accompanied by his parents, the theatre would have had every right -- some would even say responsibility -- to refuse his admission. The printing of the NC-17 rating often does not read -- as would be reasonable -- "Intended for Adults Only" but rather the more rigid "Not to be Attended by Children Under Seventeen.

    Read More

  • MPAA Rating System

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    The MPAA rating system is outdated. The recent advances in technology allow children to see movies regardless of the rating. The rating system worked well for the early years, but recently “kids slip into the movies they want to see. . . . They also see them at home on widely available DVDs, on cable, and via popular streaming services like Netflix and Amazon” (Ebert 2). Even when kids go to the theater to see movies they can “theater hop” or buy a ticket to a low rated movie and slip into the R rated film of their choice. DVDs and the Internet both provide ways for kids to watch movies that contain objectionable material. Websites that offer the o...

    Read More

  • The Use Of Censorship In Ray Bradbury's Books

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    Deciding on who makes the rules for censorship is tricky though. Should the power be in the people or in the government? Censorship should be permitted in limited cases… only a local government - preferably a school district - should be in charge with decisions to censor” (Wilson 6). While censorship is needed, people such as parents should decide how much or how little their child is censored such as what movies they watch or what internet sites they can go on. In Fahrenheit 451, the government controls all. As Bradbury notes in his work, “And then the government, seeing how advantageous it was to have people reading about only passionate lips and the fist in stomach, circled the situation with your fire-eaters” (Bradbury 85). With censorship, the government could go too far, which is why it is a good idea to let every state or county create their own rules and guidelines for censorship. As kids get older, censorship should be slightly let up.They should be old enough to make their own decisions. Wilson states,“Much of the debate over censorship revolves around protection children… School district trustees much balance their responsibility to ensure everyone is granted access to the best education… however, some materials are inappropriate for small children” (Wilson 6). Censorship should be used to protect children. Not just from websites, but websites with people that could harm them on it. Yet there comes an age

    Read More

  • Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today’s world of multimedia it has become extremely hard to avoid the introduction of adult themes to younger children, who lack the maturity to process and question the information. Young people are bombarded continually with unsuitable and undesirable concepts that give false images of acceptable behavior. Music, movies, television, internet and video games are accredited with the moral deterioration of present day youth. Great strides have been made to establish rating guidelines, parental controls and warning labels that assist adults in making informed choices on what their children should or should not be able to access but they are not perfect.

    Read More

  • Movie Rating

    488 Words  | 1 Pages

    Today’s kids are growing up faster and maturing at a faster rate than ever before. Twenty years ago it would be impossible to show breasts in a PG-13 movie. Today, kids are being taught the fasts of life younger than anyone could of imagined. This is all due to older brothers, the Internet and schools teaching kids about sex at the age of twelve. If everything else is changing except the rating’s no one is going to obey the law.

    Read More

  • Racial Stereotypes In Tv Shows

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    It’s not acceptable for young viewers to be exposed to such inappropriate material. These shows and movies are teaching future generations poor morals. Morals are concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character. People with low moral self esteem later on in life experience a hard time connecting with their peers. I think parents need to monitor what their children are watching whether that be on TV, Youtube, etc. Will you be the parent to let your children watch this type of

    Read More

  • Preventing Teen Violence

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    Violence in the media is getting way out of hand. Hollywood realizes that the more violence that it shows in its movies, then the more likely it will have a larger box office draw. Some movies need to start being rated NC-17, we have the rating but it seems as though the only reason it is there is for pornography. What is the point of having such a rating and never using it, several movies come to mind that I believe should have been rated NC-17. One in point, The Matrix, it's heavy gun scenes were not appropriate to the impressionable minds of some young teens around the nation and even to some adults capable of doing horrible things. The shooting at Columbine High School sounded eerily similar to a particular scene in the movie and it is impossible for me to ever see the movie again without thinking of the town of Littleton, Colorado.

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Violent Video Games: The Effects Of Violent Video Games?

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most games today that children play depict some type of violence. However, parents neglect that the games have warnings for violence, language, and even nudity. In my own personal experience, kids will ask for the most trending games at the time and parents will buy the game to satisfy the needs and wants of the children.

    Read More

  • Profanity In The Batman Film: The Dark Knight Rises

    1682 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...jective, then the parents also need to be subjective and judge whether or not their child should be able to see the film in question. However, with films, such as 2013’s raunchy The Wolf of Wall Street, containing record setting language, abundant amounts of nudity, and a gratuitous quantity of drug use, continuously pushing the limits and boundaries of what can be seen in a movie theatre, the MPAA has to not only classify what is in films, but make sure they are keeping kids safe and restricting the limits filmmakers can go to to make sure their motion picture can fit into the most financially suitable rating. The MPAA is not doing its job to keep the undeveloped minds of the youth of America from seeing the things that they are unable to handle and is creating a reality in which lives do not carry meaning, morals are not upheld, and life is just like the movies.

    Read More

  • The Problem of Video Game Violence is Exaggerated

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first reason video games are an issue is that many video games made today possess content that many people would consider to be obscene. The term obscene covers violence, profanity, and sexual images (obviously). Such videogames are usually branded with the M (mature audiences only) rating on the front of the videogame cover. This means that only players seventeen or older should be playing such games. However, many children around the ages of twelve and under are acquiring these video games as gifts or are purchasing the games themselves. Therefore, it can be assumed that the parents are purchasing M-rated games for their children, and that stores are willingly selling these young children M-rated games. As Paul Keegan says, parents are not following these ratings and stores are not enforcing them, thus allowing young children to view content that is considered obscene (6). Thus, if parents understand and follow the various video game rating labels, and if stores enforce the videogame rating system, then young children will not be as easily able to view mature material.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech Outline For Video Games

    744 Words  | 2 Pages

    Just like movies and TV shows, video games have the same rating system based on age.

    Read More

  • The Media Should Be Censored

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    Media has become a very powerful tool. The combination between television, internet and videogames and more have blended in with many of our life styles despite how different we are. But at the same time there are many exposures by the media that shouldn’t be out there, causing young people to behave negatively. Many younger kids get their influence from television programs, such as violent cartoons, music videos, and movies. The content and language used in these media categories can cause a child or teen to use the same kind of language against another teen, an elder, and event their parent. This can result in a children using foul language against their own parent. Therefore, media shown during the day time should be censored to minimize the exposure young kids have to explicated co...

    Read More

  • The Importance of Censorship

    386 Words  | 1 Pages

    should be censored to an extent, yet they do not see the significant effect that regular television shows really have on their children.As a child grows, more and more statistics are proving that they are being exposed to too many shows that should be censored. Many studies have concluded that young children are most affected by what they see on television (Dritz, Russel 1996). For example, a child that watches a cartoon with a lot

    Read More

  • Media Violence Essay

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...nst TV violence; they only regulate language and sexual content (Brown,2). The American television industry and movie industry are very prude regarding sex and language, but very permissive on the topic of violence. Many movies that have brief glimpses of nudity, or more than one use of profane language get rated R, yet action flicks with thousands of killings in them are rated PG-13 (Horn and Zeitchik, 2). Some question if the ratings would be more appropriate if the government established the regulations rather then the voluntary industry. Movies are rated by the Motion Picture Association of America, know also by the acronym MPAA. Television shows are rated by the network or broadcaster, that the show plays on. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rates video games but there are no set laws that prohibits children from buying games rated for adults.

    Read More

  • Media Censorship

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    Media Censorship Today there is much controversy over whether there should or shouldn’t be censorship of the media. Censorship should not be imposed on citizens by the government or other agencies; adults have a right to view or listen to what they choose. Additionally, if children’s media is censored, parents are the ones who should monitor and regulate it. Parents should be the ones to monitor children’s viewing of television and also what they hear on the radio, CD’s, and tapes.

    Read More

More about Media Rating

Open Document