Michelle Morales

As most, on Dec. 14, I awoke to the news story of unbelievable horror — the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. At that time they reported, 18 children were shot and killed. "WHAT?!” I yelled at the television and, as if the reporter heard me, it was repeated. I wasn't hearing things. This had really happened. I sat down on my bed stunned and amazed. Then I began to cry. Really? Children? How could anyone do such a thing? I don't want to rehash all the gory details because I assume by now you know most or some of them. But I will tell you, it's not too often a news report will make me cry, but I just couldn't help it. And now we're watching the gun control debate but the topic I wanted to see discussed is violence in our movies and video games. Now don't get me wrong, the gun control discussion needs to continue since this mass shooting and the one at the Portland Mall in Oregon took place with guns bought legally and that issue needs to be addressed. Still, what disturbs me is how increasingly violent our movies and video games have become and I can't help but feel like we're seeing the results of allowing all this violence into the lives of children for so long.

According to the Classification and Rating Administration, movie ratings are voluntary. The Motion Picture Association of America states parents are the ones who rate movies. So who are these parents? According to MPAA, these parents belong to the National Association of Theatre Owners. Is it just me or do you see a conflict of interest here? What's even more concerning is it's really no joke about there being a conflict of interest, and as always, Congress is well aware of the problem. According to the 2007 report "Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children” by the Federal Trade Commission created for Congress, "Some have argued that the level of violence in PG-13-rated movies, in particular, has increased over time, blurring the line between PG-13 and R-rated violent content … In recent years, PG-13 films have comprised the majority of top-grossing films for the industry. It has been argued that studios have a financial incentive to obtain a PG-13 rating, a rating that does not restrict admission to anyone but tolerates a substantial amount of violent content attractive to 12 to 17 year olds.” Interestingly enough, this is easily verified on NATO's website that lists their top-grossing films by rating. For the past four years, the top grossing films were rated PG-13 or PG. Then it seems this message of violence is hammered in over and over again with violent video games. This same report states, "the Entertainment Software Rating Board's chosen method for assigning content descriptors may fail to reveal all of the content in a game that might be of interest to parents.”

Yet there are still those who try to claim that having our children grow up with all this violence doesn't affect them. On the contrary, that's not true. There are several well-documented reports that establish that children imitate what they see and are more likely to be aggressive when they witness aggression. The American Psychological Associations states that decades of psychological research confirms media violence can increase aggression. It also refers to another report by the surgeon general from way back in 1972 that concluded children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, may be more fearful of the world around them and may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others. This same report admits that there isn't as much research in regards to video games but that they could be more harmful than violent television and movies because they are interactive, very engrossing and require the player to identify with the aggressor.

So what do I suggest? Recalling games would be a waste of resources. It seems it's time for the voluntary self-governing to end. So I challenge the MPAA to put their money where their mouth is. If you really want parents to rate movies, how about getting some real ones? It's time we get real impartial raters and not ones who have a vested interest in their bottom line. Let's have the PTA rate movies and video games. Could you imagine the new standard of entertainment? Wow, what a whole new world it would be!

Michelle Morales is a freelance writer who has a degree in mass communications from Cal State Hayward and a blog at http://michellemorales.blog.com.