Deal with it, Hollywood tells parents
p2pnet.net news:- How’s this for the ultimate in hypocrisy?
“We’ve got to figure out a way to empower parents to exercise more responsibility than they do. It’s tough. The world is different. Kids are more technically competent than their parents … We’ve got to figure out a way to let parents know they can engage their kids in what they do, and that’s a big societal problem.”
The words are Hollywood spin doctor Dan Glickman’s, quoted in the The Wichita Eagle.
Ostensibly in charge of Hollywood’s trades union, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), he was emparting his wisdom to lawyers in his home town of Wichita:
Movies rated PG-13 may not be suitable for kids of any age, says the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences unit.
“Violence permeated nearly 90 percent of the films in this study,” says Theresa Webb, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences unit.
“And while the explanations and causes of youth violence are very complex, the evidence is clear that media depictions of violence contribute to the teaching of violence.”
The MPAA hasn’t changed its movie ratings since it added PG-13 in 1980 and it was recently forced to pull back from its position on smoking in movies.
“Descriptions on sex, violence and language that accompany movie ratings now will include such phrases as ‘glamorized smoking’ or ‘pervasive smoking’,” says MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) boss Dan Glickman.
And, “When we look back 10 years from now, this will be a defining moment,” said Lisa Paulsen, president and ceo of the Entertainment Industry Foundation.
However, “This announcement is wholly inadequate and will cost countless lives,” says American Legacy Foundation president and ceo Cheryl Healton “Since more than 80 percent of smokers start before turning 18, youth exposure to smoking in youth rated movies is a vital concern for our nation’s health.”
It goes on:
According to April 2007 data from the University of California-San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, 72 percent of all U.S. produced live action films that grossed at least $500,000 from 2004 – 2006 depicted smoking. Also, between 2004 and 2006, only 42 percent of movies that depicted smoking were already R rated, not the 75 percent claimed by the MPAA.
The MPAA quotes the 2006 Monitoring the Future Study and states that “the percent of smoking during a monthly period was down about 60%, 50% and 40% in grades eight, ten and twelve respectively.” What it doesn’t say is that the comparisons were to youth smoking rates in the mid-1990s when they reached a peak. MPAA’s letter also fails to mention that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated four times in the last five years that high levels of smoking in movies are responsible for the fact that youth smoking remains as high as it is and that there was no decline in daily youth smoking rates between 2005 and 2006.
“Smoking is inherently a killer,” Glickman told The Eagle, following his talk to the Kansas Bar Association convention. “It’s not like moderate drinking – excessive drinking is the problem.”
But, he went on, smoking itself isn’t enough to affect ratings: content has to “glorify” smoking as something that might entice young people.
“It’s not to censor,” Glickman told The Eagle, “it’s to try and give parents tools they need to exercise their responsibility.”
So, mums and dads, Hollywood is blameless. If there’s smoking in movies, it’s up to you, not the folks who put it there in the first place, to deal with it. Exercise more responsibility.
Also See:
The Wichita Eagle – Glickman: Help empower parents, June 9, 2007
kids of any age – PG-13 Films Not Safe for Kids, June, 2007
smoking in movies – Hollywood ‘teen-smoking’ stance, May 11, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
June 11th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Delegation of responsibility, it’s a cheap get out clause.