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The 2016 episode of Adam Ruins Everything “Adam ruins Hollywood“Makes a bold but accurate assertion:” Movie reviews are completely pointless. ”
For those unfamiliar with the show, which ran on TruTV until 2020, the title essentially betrays the plot – comedian Adam Conover “ruins” things by accepting the often uncomfortable and possibly even undesirable context for many Provides facets of our daily life. The section on movie ratings highlights critical shortcomings in the process overseen by the Motion Picture Association’s Classification and Ratings Management Committee. Conover describes the evaluation process as “strange and arbitrary” and offers some particularly powerful examples that show how flawed the system is.
A fairly violent entry in the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight has a PG-13 rating while the non-violent Shakespeare in Love has an R rating. The latter includes some “sexual situations”; The former, a scene in which the Joker murders someone with a pencil. Adam used the example to illustrate a pervasive bias in the rating system – that the rating panel tends to accept high levels of violence, but prude when it comes to sex.
The program points out that the same swear words can lead to different ratings. Saying “Fuck You” in a movie would earn you a PG-13 rating, while “I want to fuck you” would earn you an R rating. Conover notes that LGBTQ sex is often viewed as more offensive in reviews than straight sex – if that “I want to fuck you” were spoken to someone of the same sex it could even result in an NC-17 rating.
The segment contains a pretty damning quote about how ratings are determined. Joan Graves, the Chair of the Film Ratings Board of 2000-2019, once described the process as “not science, [but] a matter of perception. “Adding in the prejudice against LGBTQ content and the racist history of the system – the forerunner of the modern day film rating board that once considered portraying white slavery inappropriate but permitting black slavery – it is easy to see like something that should supposedly help parents make informed decisions content that kids should or shouldn’t see is actually not that useful.
But, aside from reviews, where can parents look for information that will help them understand what might be in movies or other media that their children are consuming? We turned to Kristen Harrison, a professor and media psychologist at the University of Michigan who studies the effects of mass media on children and adolescents, for help.
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Understand the implications for your particular child
There are two important things that parents should understand: What children can process in a film depends not only on their age, but also on their personality and their level of maturity. Additionally, early exposure to sex and violence can have an impact on them, so it’s definitely worth considering.
“When children are exposed to violent or sexual media, they tend to behave in a way that matches that exposure,” says Harrison. “Children who are exposed to a lot of violence are likely to be a little more aggressive. Children exposed to sexual media may use sexual language a little more frequently or arouse their curiosity about sexuality. But the key point here is that not all children react in the same way. ”
Film and other rating systems are problematic if they contain a general, blanket statement about the age for which this content is suitable. Not only are some children of the same age more likely to be scared or upset by violent content than others – it can automatically be attractive to children under 17 to say something that is only appropriate for children 17 and over.
“[Ratings] can backfire because having kids see it can make content more appealing to younger kids who want to feel grown up by seeing something that is meant for older kids, ”she says.
Harrison recommends parents look for content-based ratings. Common sense media has a great database of thorough content-based reviews of various media for parents to use as a resource.
“Let’s say a movie is shown with adult themes or is violent; These parents can decide which children are okay with this content and which are likely to disagree, based on their children’s sensitivity, ”says Harrison.
What the MPA ratings don’t cover
As you share your favorite entertainment with your kids, know that revisiting prior can reveal content with modern eyes stereotypical representations of races, Gender and sexuality not covered by this PG rating. If these topics are encountered, they should be discussed and explained with children. But they are often beyond the scope of what tools like movie or content ratings offer.
My father and I were super different people. He was a proud rat in a workers’ shop and I was a book freak. (He was kind and loving, even if we didn’t speak the same language.) When I was a kid, we connected through pro-wrestling. He absolutely loved it, and like many kids, I found the over-the-top personalities in wrestling incredibly entertaining.
He died a year before my son was born. As my son got older, I tried wrestling to introduce him to his grandfather. There is one problem, however: WWE, the largest wrestling company in the world, has a ridiculously problematic history with racism, Homophobia, the regressive way of the company has portrayed women, and how it handles his own work. Instead of assuming the material would go over his head, we looked at how it came about in the old wrestling shows we watch and opened the door for some good and productive conversation.
“There is research showing that media content that is stereotypical or that groups present in a stereotypical manner is related to more stereotypical views of those groups after exposure,” says Harrison. “So parents should be careful. I think what you can do is talk to your kids about how stereotypes can pop up in the media. ”
There are obviously overt examples of racist or sexist content in older media that are usually easy to identify for what it is, but such content is far from a thing of the past. Harrison points out that the process of storytelling itself still leads to relying on such tropes. It’s just easier to rely on cultural or gender stereotypes in certain periods of time than to build characters or plots with real human complexity, and many shows, films, and other media still rely on them, even when used more subtly than in the past.
“Creators need to convey a story visually,” says Harrison. “Violence, for example, is a very visually powerful and easily understandable way of demonstrating conflict. But in real life there are a lot of conflicts that aren’t violent, right? But that is what the media have to convey. If there is a conflict between two people, he will often resort to lively conflict demonstrations. “
It is the same with other stereotypes, she notes: “If [a film] want to present that a character is gay, for example, they can actually still rely on visual stereotypes and gag to convey that they are gay. ”
When such situations arise, Harrison recommends simply reminding children that stereotypes do not reflect reality and that all people are different and have different motivations and traits.
You can’t check everything in person
Parents want to protect their children, so it’s natural to want to know what they’re seeing at all times, especially when they’re young. But it’s also impossible to pre-check everything they see. Virtually all children have some access to devices, possibly even if parents do not know they are using them. Content is everywhere.
“It’s really hard to monitor content these days,” says Harrison. “I don’t think parents should feel bad about not looking over their children’s shoulders 24 hours a day because they just can’t. And at some point, when your children go through puberty, for example, it is developmentally inappropriate to be observed by their parents to this extent anyway. ”
It is important to ensure that children do not have inappropriate conversations or are cared for by predators while consuming media content, but it is also important to help them develop their own relationships and interests and make their own decisions. Parents can structure and guide content without having to constantly monitor what is being seen.
For younger children there are also apps and tools like For sure that allow parents to see a history or summary of the content children see and track other behaviors to ensure they are responsible in what they consume or how they interact online.
Simply introducing various healthy activities can also be a way to balance their lives and avoid over-consuming problematic or over-mature films or shows.
“I think parents need to stop looking over their shoulders to see everything they see or hear and look at it more in terms of the media that is part of child development,” says Harrison. “One way parents can deal with this onslaught of media is to simply try to introduce more general activities into their children’s lives. So if it means going for a walk with your children or preparing a meal together with your children, don’t think of it as an attempt to reduce their exposure, but instead try to replace their exposure with things that children need for development. Give them a break from the media time and that will [naturally] reduce their exposure to problematic content. ”
