Published online June 1, 2007
PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 6 June 2007, pp. 1261 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-0855)

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Pulling the Plug on Entertainment Industry Ratings: In Reply

Michael Rich, MD, MPH
Center on Media and Child Health
Children's Hospital Boston
Harvard Medical School
Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, MA 02115

This challenge to American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations about using media ratings is completely consistent with best practice of pediatrics. Pediatricians, who translate complex science into strategies for optimizing child health, have led public concern over the effects of media on children for more than 2 decades. What does research show about media violence? The Center on Media and Child Health has catalogued 956 scientific articles (www.cmch.tv) that provide nearly unanimous evidence that exposure to media violence contributes to elevated fear and anxiety, sleep disturbances, desensitization to human suffering, and increases in aggressive thoughts and behaviors.¹

Media ratings are neither based in science nor assigned by child development experts. Applied by entertainment industry employees to inform consumers about "inappropriate" content, ratings estimate public acceptability, not potential to influence health and safety. Media producers know their age-based ratings are effective tools of marketing and self-protection. Children will seek out content aimed at more mature audiences. Ratings of any quality allow producers to dissuade legislators from restrictions and point to parents as those responsible for choosing what their children view. Allowing producers to rate their own product is akin to allowing butchers to certify the safety of meat. In no other aspect of practice would pediatricians recommend abandoning science and relying on the advice of those who stand to profit from children's use of a health-affecting product.

Physicians demand rigor, reliability, and validity of the science that guides medical decision-making. We want information that is honest, complete, and applicable to issues of critical concern. Industry ratings meet none of these standards. Compared with parent ratings of film and television, industry ratings varied by as much as 50%, all in the direction of permitting younger viewers.² On average, 1 decade of "ratings creep" permitted R-rated content to be rated PG-13.³ Every G-rated animated feature made between 1937 and 1999 portrays violence.⁴ Video game ratings ignore the most severe content at all rating levels.^5,6 Beyond violence, research has shown smoking in movies to be a powerful independent influence on youth initiating and maintaining tobacco use,⁷ yet smoking portrayals have no influence on ratings.⁸

Children are exposed to and powerfully affected by media. Pediatricians should encourage informed decision-making on safe media use. When this recommendation was first made, only industry ratings were available. Today there are other sources of media content information, several of which are more accurate, and certainly less self-serving, than the industry ratings. As a society, we have demanded inspection and certification of what we feed our children's bodies, but we have no credible system for ensuring the safety of what we feed their minds. As pediatricians, we need something better than industry ratings with which to guide parents and children toward optimizing their physical, mental, and social health.

REFERENCES

1. American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Public Education. Media violence. Pediatrics. 2001;108 :1222 –1226[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Walsh DA, Gentile DA. A validity test of movie, television, and video-game ratings. Pediatrics. 2001;107 :1302 –1308[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3. Thompson KM, Yokota F. Violence, sex, and profanity in films: correlation of movie ratings with content. MedGenMed. 2004;6 :3[Medline]
4. Yokota F, Thompson KM. Violence in G-rated animated films [published correction appears in JAMA. 2000;284:567]. JAMA. 2000;283 :2716 –2710[Abstract/Free Full Text]
5. Thompson KM, Haninger K. Violence in E-rated video games. JAMA. 2001;286 :591 –598[Abstract/Free Full Text]
6. Haninger K, Thompson KM. Content and ratings of teen-rated video games. JAMA. 2004;291 :856 –865[Abstract/Free Full Text]
7. Sargent JD, Beach ML, Adachi-Mejia AM, et al. Exposure to movie smoking: its relation to smoking initiation among US adolescents. Pediatrics. 2005;116 :1183 –1191[Abstract/Free Full Text]
8. Charlesworth A, Glantz SA. Smoking in the movies increases adolescent smoking: a review. Pediatrics. 2005;116 :1516 –1528[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2007 by the American Academy of Pediatrics

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This Article Extract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Rich, M. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Rich, M. Related Collections Office Practice Social Bookmarking                         What's this?