Parents Org Calls for Overhaul of Movie and TV Ratings

[Wang Chung]

The Parents Television Council is calling for an overhaul of movie and TV ratings, which the org says are inaccurate and inconsistent.

Last month, the PTC blasted the TV content ratings system, and its most recent criticism on Wednesday was extended to include the 46-year-old motion picture voluntary ratings.

“In order for the system to work properly, content ratings much be accurate, consistent, transparent and publicly accountable,†said Tim Winter, president of PTC. “The current system is none of that.â€

The PTC tied their call for an overhaul of the ratings system to the one-year anniversary of Vice President Joseph Biden’s meetings with reps of the movie and TV business to talk about violence in the media, following the Newtown, Conn., school shootings. Winter contends that the industry “has done nothing†to reduce media violence since then, and he cited a well-publicized study from the Annenberg Public Policy Center and Ohio State University that found that PG-13 rated movies contain as much violence as R-rated movies. The study appeared in Pediatrics, the publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Parents instinctively protect their children from harmful content because they know that children are impacted by what they see,†Winter said. “But they cannot protect their children by relying on an inaccurate ratings system.â€

The MPAA had no comment.

Industry reps have long pointed to research finding an inconclusive connection to media violence and real life violence, even though PTC and other parents orgs have called for additional research and have pointed to findings that there is a correlation between on-screen and actual aggression. The Annenberg study, meanwhile, looked at only the top 30 movies each year, not every movie rated or released.

Last month, the PTC’s criticisms of the TV content ratings was met with pushback from TV Watch, an org made of of several industry members that opposes government control of TV content. Its executive director, Jim Dyke, said that PTC had an “online complaint machine†and had a “history of exaggerated numbers, flawed methodology and misleading or outright false claims†that “suggests they are more interested in their own agenda rather than parents.â€

Well as much as I think the MPAA formula is horrible to begin with and does very little to stop what really goes into films. I even heard that they sent South Park the movie back and they added things just to make them mad and they said ok its good. WTF is wrong with this but I would take what we have now over the government stepping in as they can't run it now. We are on a very fine line here because as soon as we allow them to run this they will run the music industry and its bad enough that they are already witch hunting people for their comments like Phil Robertson.

Leave them alone. Parents need to be parents. The issue is not the movies, the games or the music but the how much time is spent with these kids and them knowing you are there for them. When they don't feel you are there then they will do what ever the hell they want and get into all kids of trouble.