World Report: October 6, 2000 Vol.6 No.5
- This Issue:
- Table of Contents
- Cover Story
- Cover Story - Spanish Version
- Mini-Lesson
- Comprehension Quiz
- Teacher's Guide and Worksheets
Hollywood Showdown
The talks on violent films and kids continued last week. The sequel starred movie-company bosses.
A study released two weeks ago found that ads for violent films purposely targeted kids (see Ads for Violent CDs and Movies Target Kids, 9/22). At last week's meeting, movie producers admitted that they had tried to push R-rated movies to kids. They say it's O.K. for kids under 17 to see such films with their parents, so kids and teens are part of their intended audience. Some pointed to R-rated films like Saving Private Ryan as movies parents might want to take children to see.
"It is impossible to completely restrict our ads for all those 17 and younger," said Stacy Snider of Universal Studios.
Some studios had new ideas to address the problem. Disney plans to create a single rating system for music, film and TV. Warner Bros. will now explain in ads the reasons a movie got an R rating.
But lawmakers rated the media company efforts NE, for Not Enough. "If you don't try to really make this work," said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, "you're going to see some kind of legislation."
