From January 2005 to June 2007, I was employed by Hollywood Video. My perks were great. Store 2 minutes from home. Free movie rental. Free disk repair of personal CD or DVD's. Free movie rental. Job always changed - never boring. Free movie rental. It was just going to be a part time job, to help pay for the kids dance classes. Then my husband lost his job and I began to move up to help with the bills. It was when I began working 40+ hours a week that I REALLY got to see what our kids do. When children stay with friends or grandparents, they assure them, with angelic expressions, that "Mom and Dad let me", and once they have described a few movies, they are believed. I was shocked by how many four (4) and five (5) year olds were walking around having just rented "Saw" or "Seed of Chuckie". Both of these titles are available rated R and unrated. Most video stores carry a few R but mostly the Unrated! So began my movie rating education campaign. On the bottom of the movie poster or the back of every movie box is a movie rating, and in very small print, under the rating is a description of WHY the movie has that particular rating! Here is the link for the MPAA with ratings and descriptions. http://www.mpaa.org/index.asp These descriptions are actually for movie a few years old and older. Newer Motion Picture Posters and DVD's have the rating with the description on the box - no questions.
Games have ratings and descriptions on front bottom cover. Games with gore or violence (wow, there are a bunch) actually describe the levels of violence in the rating box! Read the synopsis on the back of the box as well. You would be surprised how many Christian families came back to the store to complain about Ghost Rider. They were shocked that it was a story about a man making a deal with the devil... which is plainly stated on the box. Unrated movie or game is NOT to be rented to anyone under 17. These are also known as NC17 in theaters. But usually the rentable DVD will contain material even an NC-17 theater could not show! Lack of movie rating can mean soft porn to porn, but it can also just mean the movie has extra dialogue that most people find unnecessary, but the director wanted it left in. DO NOT allow children to watch an unrated movie, unless you watch the entire movie AND check the special features FIRST! Family movie time is a lot more enjoyable if you don't have to keep pausing or sending children from the room. Read the movie description online and check ratings before heading to the theaters. Check DVD boxes, including the descriptions in the tiny rating box before you take the movie home. Here are a few sites to check to make your family movie night a bit more hassle free. Yahoo! Movies http://movies.yahoo.com/ synopsis, ratings, critics, theater, dvds, view trailer
IMDB http://imdb.com/ more detailed synopsis, ratings, critics, theater, DVD, TV,view trailers PauseParentPlay http://www.pauseparentplay.org/ parent guide to help make informed decisions of what their children watch, hear and play. I hope sharing this here helps some of you to better know how to protect your children and make wise entertainment decisions. |
