Movie Ratings Ruining Movies for Us All

Children today can view media in many different ways. While many choose the traditional theatre, some children can view movies legally through buying the DVD, paying a cable provider, watching the movie on a television station, or illagaly through onlinestreaming or downloading. Regardless of the method chosen to vview a motion picture, there is always the MPAA rating. The notion of giving a movie a rating can go back to days of censorship in the 1900’s. Later on, however, ratings were developed by the standards of the first head of the MPPDA, Will Hays. Through the history of the movie rating system there has been multiple supreme court ruling over the matter of ratings and censorship such as U.S. v. Paramount Pictures, Mutual Film Corp v. Industrial Commission, and joseph Burstyn v. Wilson (Key). Along with the movie rating system came parents making it a determining factor in the decision to allow their child to view the film. These parentsusually look at the rating and decide whether the is appropriate for their child, believing they have made a good choice; However, that rating will not always be a reliable source. Some parents who are genuinely concerned about the rating screen the movie before the decision for their children to see it is made. These concerned parents are having to do the job that the MPAA can not adequately perform. It would seem logical, then that the current rating sytem needs to be looked at and revised. Parents who expect to see a “family friendly” movie are often bombarded with innuendo, racy, and judegemnetal behavior from charaters in the movie. Even though their children are too young to understand the adult jokes, the parents get offended that their child will even become exposed to the type of behavior. The movie rating system is not a reliable system in current times. The problem is that these ratings that are not accurate and need to be reviewed and