Joseph Price, Craig Palsson & Doug Gentile (2014) What Matters in Movie Ratings? Cross-country Differences in how Content Influences Mature Movie Ratings, Journal of Children and Media, 8:3, 240-252, https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2014.880359
WORD COUNT: 953
This is a source from the ‘Journal of Children and Media’, that focuses on how movie ratings are different dependent on the country the movie is released within. Joseph Price, Craig Palsson & Doug Gentile go into considerable detail about these varied aspects and why things are done discordantly depending on the country.
They look into the data of over 1,000 movies and their ratings, which is a substantial amount of sources for their research. They determined that the United States has more of a cut down on profanity but are less focused on cutting down on violence. They discovered the approach the USA take on how they give their movies age ratings is unusual, due to the fact violence has the most influential impact and harm to children who view this content.
This is an interesting source and I am fascinated with the in-depth look at the different approach each country has when it comes to rating movies put forward by other countries production companies. The section that stands out to me is the section titled “movie ratings.” It goes into how age ratings have changed over the years, based on the attitudes of the public, governments and the classification boards.
‘Whatever the approach, a reliable, consistent, and accurate movie rating system is a very important tool to empower parents concerned about their children’s access to potentially harmful content.’ (Price, Palsson and Gentile, 2014) This is something I completely agree with. As someone who has worked at a cinema for over 3 years now, age rating issues is something I have faced first hand. Teenagers trying to get into 15 rated movies without their ID. Parents arguing with me and colleagues over the law that stop people under the age rating getting in, even with a parent. People just not understanding that just because a movie has a particular age rating in one country, the same rules don’t apply in the UK. This is made more difficult by the fact that the US has ruled that anything rated R or below, anyone can get into, even children if they’re with their parents. Which makes it difficult when people who only know this way of how movie theatres work, come into see a movie and don’t understand the UK law and rules are different.
‘When youth watch sexual content, they tend to have more permissive attitudes about casual sex and are more likely to initiate sex at younger ages.’ (Price, Palsson and Gentile, 2014). This is a very bold statement to make, in light of this, this is very likely to be true. On the contrary, we could say the same thing about violence shown in these movies. There have been many movies over the last few years, that I have watched and thought they deserved a higher age rating due to the violence shown.
IT (2017) being one movie in particular that I believed should have been an 18 rating, rather than the 15 age rating it received, within the UK. The film contained a lot of violence, that featured children and teenagers. One scene that particularly stands out, is when six-year-old Georgie gets his arm ripped off by Pennywise. This is something I believe a younger audience should not be viewing, seeing as it involves such a young character. Another thing that stands out in the movie, is the scene when the character Henry Bowers takes a knife and stabs his father in the neck. They didn’t hold back showing this fully close up, in all its gore. As younger viewers are easily impressionable, this may be a scene they watch and copy in real life. They may believe that this is the only way to deal with a family member who may be abusing them.
“Researchers have noted that the existing US media ratings are generally based more on what is considered offensive than on what is likely to be harmful to children” (Price, Palsson and Gentile, 2014) This is a statement that makes it very clear what the main focus for the US movie industry is. As long as your film doesn’t contain anything offensive and has a minimum use of profanity, you’re good to go on the violence. “If ratings were based on evidence from studies about the impact of movie content on children, parents would have a consistent metric on which to base their decisions about which movies to let their children watch.” (Price, Palsson and Gentile, 2014) is another bold statement. It can be seen that it is clear that the age ratings need to be based more clearly, on what has a lasting impact on the younger audience and not if a character is having sex or says a bad word.
As a source as a whole, it helps me understand what I need to do to produce my future work for the right audience. If I want to make a mature film, I have to make sure I understand my target audience and what they want to see. I’ve also got to be careful if I decide to aim any content at a younger audience, not to include any themes which will jeopardise the opportunity to release it for this younger target demographic.
As an aspiring filmmaker, this source is very relevant. No matter what I produce or write, I have to remember that my content has to be suitable for the target audience. No matter what I believe as a person within this industry, my content has got to be suitable for the demographic I decide to aim it at. Just like it depends on what people find offensive, everyone has different opinions, something we all need to remember.
IMAGE REFERENCES:
Warner Bros. Pictures (2017). IT. [image] Available at: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/7/7e/Henry_Bowers%282017%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20170912233931
nathanedwards.movie.blog 
