Ratings, Violence, Responsibility

[vegeta rocker]

I have been thinking about this for a bit and i want some other opinions on violence.

I'm a digital media student and i create video, print, photography and web design. The reason i mention this is because every week i am told i need to be a responsible artist.

I always took it as avoiding plagiarism or something along those lines. But it was meant as something else; a comment on violence.

We are told it is our responsability to take repurcussions for anything we may create.

A recent class i was in had to turn in some short films dealing with the number eleven. About half of them were violent in some way, mine included.

Don't get me wrong, they were all well done and very good. But as we watched a gag reel with two people in hockey masks being humorously beaten i started to wonder if we reallty are too desentisized.

Sure you say that anyone viewing a violent work of yours would hopefully be of age; this is where my question comes in.

Do you think it is right that a young person under 17 can be admitted into a movie that is rated R if they are with a parent or gaurdian?

How much responsability do you think an artist has over what his/her work's impact?

I personally don't think it is right that younger kids can be let in. I used to not have a problem but then i saw a dumbass mother with her two ten or eleven year old kids watching the Devils Rejects.

That really pissed me off; i wanted to smack her in the back of her head and tell her to take her kids home.

In my opinion, i do have responsability over what i create, but what about parents?
f you want to leave your kid at home to be babysat by the tv then what do you expect?

Do you think the current outcry over games and movies should be directed more towards parenting?

I do.

[Albert Flasher]

[COLOR=sienna]Parents should be able to do whatever they want with their kids. If they think it's ok to let their kid sit through a 2 hour gore-fest, let them. It's their kids, we've got no right to decide what they do with them.

Personally I love gore and violence in movies. I rank High Tension, Devils Rejects, The Hills Have Eyes, Ghost's of Mars, Ong-Bak, and the Dead series. I rank Alex Aja and George A. Romero as my favourite directors. Stephen Segal, Jean-Claude van Damme, and Arnold Scharwezenegger are some of my favourite actors. I'm 14 and I go see movies that are bloody and gory and generally lacking in plot or writing, and I'm a fairly level-headed individual. [/COLOR]

[vegeta rocker]

You are fourteen; not ten. At least you are a teenager.

Don't get me wrong, i grew up on pinhead and other movies like that. I love horror films still.

I just think its hypocritical for parents to blame media and then not do their job.

I think that if we are enforcing ratings then we do have a right. I don't mean to come off as a meddling person trying to take a parents control away, im not.

It just seems unbalanced that they cant get into Harry Potter but they can sit throught that.

[Albert Flasher]

[QUOTE=vegeta rocker]You are fourteen; not ten. At least you are a teenager.

Don't get me wrong, i grew up on pinhead and other movies like that. I love horror films still.

I just think its hypocritical for parents to blame media and then not do their job.

I think that if we are enforcing ratings then we do have a right. I don't mean to come off as a meddling person trying to take a parents control away, im not.

It just seems unbalanced that they cant get into Harry Potter but they can sit throught that.[/QUOTE][COLOR=Sienna]

I personally don't believe in enforcing the ratings. I think that all movies should have a something that indicates what the movie's like, but it should only be a reference for parents, not a rule. All movie's should be parent's guidance. If a parent wants his/her kid to go see a gorey movie, then the kid needs the parent with him/her for permission. That's what I mean.

And yea, it is hypocritical, but that's only because a lot of parents are lazy and like to make scapegoats out of the media so they don't look bad.[/COLOR]

[Andy]

[quote name='HedonismBot][COLOR=sienna']Stephen Segal, Jean-Claude van Damme, [/COLOR][/quote]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=DarkRed]Those two kick ***. And i'm also 14 and I love violence as well, but thats beside the point. I also think that it's not our decision because if that parent wants their kid to watch those kind of movies, oh well. Because we may think it's wrong or whatever, but it's really not our place to say. But personally if I was in that parent's place I wouldn't have let him watch a movie like that, at least until he's 13 or so. So my opinion is more or less a age thing. But like I said, it's really not our place to say, and there's nothing we can do about it.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR=DarkOrange]If parents are smart, their kids will be smart. What you see on TV isn't what alters you, its how your parents react to it.

If parents say violnt TV is bad or restricted, it only makes kids want to watch it more. The type of parents who restrict things like that tend to be the kind that don't get along with their kids, and so the kids want to diobey them. (WARNING: That was a sweeping generalization)

At the same time, if parents don't teach their kids that the thing their role-models do is wrong, there's nothing stopping the kids from watching it.

It all comes down to good parenting, something which is rather rare (or accidental, which is sort of my parents' case XD)

TV doesnt warp your kids. It may get them interested in crazy stuff, but your parents have control over how far those interests go. My youngest brother grew up when my bro and I were into Anime and watched movies like Kill Bill with him, so it's natural he would like to see blood and swords and want to use one, but he knows better and would sooner tell me or my mom that he found a weapon than pick it up.[/COLOR]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Interesting, most interesting.

I was actually discussing this topic with one of my teachers not too long ago, as she was lamenting one of her children wanted to go see a movie they were not legally old enough to see by themselves and wanted to go anyway. Having been in the position of the child only six years ago, my advice was pretty succinct, ratings are there to give a parent an idea of the level of gore/horror/sexuality they can expect from a film, and if they feel that's inappropriate for their child then they're entirely within their right to tell them no, they can't see it.

By the time we hit our mid teens, thirteen/fourteen/fifteen we develop an odd notion that we're old enough to have seen and done enough to make our own decisions, and that our parents don't know what they're talking about. That's not a broadshot at anyone, I'm speaking from personal experience. We think that we know everything and that we should be allowed do/see anything because we're so mature and yada yada yada. ********, by the time we hit our mid teens we're probably at our most ignorant in the ways of the world, and this is made even worse by the fact we don't realise it.

Movies should have ratings, there's no doubt in my mind about that, a child/teen should not be allowed walk into an 18s movie just because they feel like it, because whoever rated the film feels that only an adult is old enough to see it for what it is. Parents need to be responsible to their children without turning into police, we learn from our experiences good and bad, and over protective parents are as bad as those who offer none.[/SIZE]

[Petie]

[font=Verdana][color=blue]This topic is really a general discussion and as such, it is more suited for the Otaku Lounge, which is where it's going.[/color][/font]

[ri0t]

[color=maroon]I think movie theaters should be allowed to determine who sees what movies at their cinema. Parents can and will always have the choice of taking their children to a violent/sexual/foul language ridden movie or choosing tamer fare, but I don't think the government need be involved.[/color]

[James]

[font=arial]I agree with ratings, because they are a quick indicator of what kind of content you are likely to see in a movie. This may not always have to do with physically restricting a child's access - most of the time it's sheer convenience (some adults don't want to see excessive gore or sex in a movie, which is fair enough).

On the other hand, I do not think that artists should be censored at all. I don't believe that violent cinema has a direct correlation with violent behavior in children or anyone. Rather, I think it works the opposite way - I think that those with a predisposition to violence will seek out violent material to satisfy their feelings. Whether this is a movie, or a game or a song...it doesn't matter.

Censoring artists because a minority of people react badly to violent media is asenine. It's even more ridiculous when you consider the idea that these people have a pre-existing disorder anyway - if you're someone who is going to shoot your classmates, I think it's fair to say that you have a pre-existing mental disorder well before you seek out any violent media. And if the media [i]does[/i] cause you to "snap", it's still clear that you have a predisposition to do so - this is not the fault of the media or the artist.

This is kind of why we have ratings on our RPGs here, yet The Arena has no language filter. The idea is that you can be as creative as you want and generally go as far as you want...as long as you rate the thread appropriately. This way anyone who reads the content has elected to do so and cannot claim that they were "surprised" or whatever.[/font]