Escaping the grasp of ratings

Parental advisory: explicit content

^^That gets put to certain albums. Should they be?

Rated R (or etc)

^^That gets put to certain movies. Should they be?

Rated E (or etc)

^^That gets put on certain video games. Should they be?

Rated MA-14 (or etc)

^^That gets put on certain cable/tv programming. Should they be?


To the main questions:

1. Who all decides on whether or not something gets a rating of some kind? What are ratings intended for?

2. How is it the news media doesnt have to put some sort of ratings to its content of a particular news bid being covered?

Personally, based on a current rating system of your liking, what would you rate news coverage about:

1) a school shooting that left 22 students dead?
2) a teacher student sexual relationship where the teacher performd oral sex on the student?

3. Not all books are put as childrens books. How is it that writers of certain books dont have to put some sort of ratings onto the books for the content they have within them?

Personally, based on a current rating system of your liking, what would you rate the book called:

1) the Bible?
2) the Koran?

This is another of those questions where the line has to be drawn somewhere by somebody for the good of somebody else!

If you are capable of reading and understanding a text then you should be allowed to read it. Wether you are mature enough to make an informed decision about what you have read is another question entirely as we all know everyone develops at different rates. I know kids that are 6/7 that have a reading age of most 12 year olds and I know some 12 year olds that have all the common sense of an ironing board.

One of the big issues regarding these ratings is the difference between fact and fiction, but as we all can see and from the news examples the op has given: fact can be worse than fiction.

In the UK the "watershed" as it's commonly known is 9-30. Where I live now (Hong Kong) that's early and most kids - even as young as 4, don't go to bed until around 11, cultural differences and all that! So when can the adult stuff be shown, should the news not be reported and we know that they are much more likely to show the stories you have mentioned than say "Granny's cat stuck up a tree!" because of the shock factor.

Should we have ratings?

Yes we should.

Should we abide by them?

Personal choice. If we (the ATS members) deny ignorance then we therefore shouldn't discount one source over another. (Unless they are proven hoaxers :p ) Music and movies are different peoples interpretations of the world around them, shutting that away from people is in my mind showing ignorance, words are just words, there is nothing more ignorant that someone using words they don't understand (like my friends wife - argumentative communist!)

Do I want my son (3.5 years) watching porn and hard core violence... Hell no! he has to learn all about that one day, but he needs some innocence and ratings should help protect that... hold on am I now being hypocritical and ignorant.

Is it a completely different question when young children are involved?

How can you stop adolescents from seeing this stuff, they have youtube and TVs in their rooms and cable and wifi and all that jazz...

Confusing myself now?!?

MonKey