I went to a PG-13 rated movie today. Have you ever really considered the ratings system? I took a crash course at mpaa.org on "the anatomy of a rating" and it provides pretty good information, a general age-appropriateness, and details on what kind of things to watch out for, violence, sex, language, etc. The reason I did that was because something happened that I have never seen before.
Before the movie, after the commercials for the TV shows and the colas, they ran the trailers for other movies, more commercials for movies that I will probably see on Netflix if anywhere.
Today, the trailers had a line I've never seen before, that the trailer is "appropriate for the rating of the movie that is to follow". In other words, "R" films came up with trailers cut up for PG-13 audiences. And since, as a parent, I can admit the child between the ages of 13 and 17 to the R movies at my discretion, how about a little extra pressure?
I got a big problem with 'R' movies being advertised before a 'PG-13' film. I got a bigger problem with the fact that the trailers DO NOT carry the movie ratings so that I can have an informed conversation about the movie's appropriateness with my children or my wife or my parishioners or in this blog.
So why would they do that? Why try and advertise movies not appropriate for children to movies where there are going to be children? Without clear labeling? Why advertise any product? To sell it of course, to make money off of it. The movie business is no different from any other business.
It is hard enough to get a discussion going about what is appropriate for our children to be exposed to. The producers of violent and sexually oriented media content are the same producers of news media content, news programs that might in fact sponsor such discussions in the public sphere. But this kind of discussion is not in line with the purpose of media content producers, which is to make money.
It is hard enough to get solid information on the connections between media violence and school violence, good information on media sexuality and sexual practices among our children-at younger and younger ages.
Imagine trying to have a serious discussion on the appropriateness of advertising this kind of material to children?
The ratings system is one of too few tools out there to help us make informed decisions about movies, television, or video games. It amazes me that whenever there is any mention of the ratings systems for popular media, the discussions too easily get sidetracked into the appropriateness or the usefulness of the system.
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