MOVIE, MUSIC, VIDEOGAME INDUSTRIES TAKEN TO TASK OVER VIOLENCE

Although MPAA Pres. Jack Valenti repeatedly reminded the audience of the First Amendment and the subjectivity of creating such standards, the vast majority of those in attendance appeared unmoved. One woman held up a large cardboard replica of a pack of cigarets with the words “MPAA Pack of Lies” on the front each time Valenti spoke.

Valenti, who helped create today’s movie rating system and also assisted with that used by TV, agreed there were inadequacies in the TV rating system, saying parents didn’t understand them because they were “too complicated.” But he warned that even the Supreme Court couldn’t define pornography based on “community standards” if those standards weren’t clear. “We're dealing with a vapory air of subjectivity,” he said. “If the Supreme Court can’t define it, how can anybody else?” He said he thought both the NAB and NCTA should get involved in clearing up the confusion surrounding the TV ratings system, and said he didn’t even know what “FV” meant, although he was part of the group that came up with the ratings. Kaiser Family Foundation Vp Vicky Rideout said many parents thought it meant “Family Viewing,” when in fact it stood for “Fantasy Violence.” She also said most parents didn’t know about the V-chip in TVs and how to use it.

An NAB spokesman said the association had been involved all along in the TV ratings system. “The fact is that the original content ratings system that was adopted was based on the MPAA model and it was an age-based descriptor system. But because of some of the activist groups and certain members of Congress, we revised the system and included some of the extra descriptors, specifically to accommodate their concerns,” he said. NAB has aired public service announcements explaining what the different letters mean, and polls have shown that 45-50% of respondents were familiar with the system. “I think parents who want to use it are using it. My guess is that most parents already know sort of intuitively that certain programs… are inappropriate for children.” He said NAB would like newspapers to publish content descriptors with TV listings to help parents better navigate. “I would argue that on broadcast television there’s still quite a bit of family friendly programming,” he said, and it was “far tamer” than some programming on cable.

Cable cited all of its channels geared specifically toward children such as Noggin, N and Animal Planet. Cable also joined with the National PTA to promote media literacy in the “Taking Charge of Your TV Project” to help parents make decisions about what and when to watch with their children. Cable networks in 1996 helped develop the current TV parental guidelines, an NCTA spokesman said. NCTA also points to “Take Charge of Your TV Week,” which it sponsors, as well as its Cable in the Classroom initiative. The NCTA spokesman said the association had not had discussions with MPAA or other groups about revising the current ratings system.

FTC Chmn. Timothy Muris opened the day-long conference, saying the agency was working on its 5th report on the subject of marketing violence to children and that all measures taken to date by the entertainment industries had been voluntary. “Youth violence remains a troubling issue for all of us. The exposure of our children to excessively violent media, be it in our entertainment products or on the news, remains a major worry for me as a parent.” At the same time, he said, the First Amendment requires that the govt. “tread only cautiously.” Muris outlined what he called 3 “common sense principles” that he hoped everyone in the room would agree on: (1) Industry should market its products consistent with ratings and parental advisories. (2) Parents should have access to useful information on the ratings. (3) Retailers should consider whether entertainment was rated as appropriate for children in adopting sales policies.

Rep. Wolf (R-Va.) said he believed it had become “nearly impossible to shield minors from graphic violence” and their exposure to such violence was taking a toll on society. Too often, children imitate what they see in the media, he said. “How many more Columbines must occur before effective action is taken to keep violent material out of the hands of children? How many more Paducahs? How many more Jonesboros?” he asked. He pointed to the videogame Grand Theft Auto, in which players could fatally shoot a policeman and have virtual sex with a prostitute. He said the current voluntary system wasn’t preventing children from buying such videos and therefore was failing: “Labeling may be a start, but much more needs to be done.” Wolf encouraged parents to sue so that such entertainment “goes the way of tobacco.”

Rep. Baca (D-Cal.), the chief sponsor of the proposed “Protect the Children from Videogame Sex and Violence Act of 2003,” said he believed children were being brainwashed by videogames in which they were awarded points for demeaning and killing police officers and innocent citizens. The bill would prohibit the sale or rental to a minor of a videogame that depicted nudity, sexual conduct or other content deemed harmful to minors. “We need a federal law helping our parents to monitor what games their children should play,” he said. Baca said he and some other members of Congress were forming a congressional caucus on media sex and violence.

RIAA Chmn. Mitch Bainwol found himself in the difficult position of advocating for his industry’s ratings system while acknowledging that many children who illegally downloaded music from the Internet could easily bypass the system. Such illegal sites and peer-to-peer networks have no labeling on music, and often purvey pornography, he said. Saying that the industry’s ratings could use some “refining,” he said the legal industry was “missing an enormous piece of the puzzle” because of all the illegal activity.

Perhaps the person who found herself in the hottest seat of all was Patricia Vance, pres. of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, a self-regulatory body for the videogame industry. She said her industry’s ratings, combined with content descriptors such as “blood and gore,” were highly effective -- something many other panelists disputed. She said research showed that most parents agreed with the industry’s ratings and that parents were just as likely to think the industry was being too strict in its ratings as too lenient.

However, Daphne White of the Lion & Lamb Project said the descriptors often were vague and contradictory and said she believed that was done purposely to obfuscate. “There’s too much money at stake in marketing violence to children,” White said. “We need regulation, legislation and possibly more lawsuits.” Nell Minow, daughter of ex-FCC Chmn. Newton Minow, noted that her father once called TV a “vast wasteland.” Today, she quoted him as saying, it was more like “a toxic waste dump.” She’s the author of The Movie Mom’s Guide to Family Movies and writes movie reviews. She said she believed it was a mistake to have any ratings systems that was “completely controlled by the industry.” She also cited changes in community standards, saying the current “Kill Bill” movie was so violent that it had “ratcheted down” everything else as being comparably milder in terms of standards. Lara Mahoney of the Parents TV Council (PTC) said its research showed that many inappropriate videogames were being advertised in TV shows popular with children and teenagers, including Fox’s American Idol.