Instead of imposing federal restrictions, we should begin by ensuring that existing ratings are easily understood by consumers. "Although the FTC report highlighted some very troubling marketing practices," Sununu said, "I agree with Senator (John) McCain that censorship is not the answer to this problem. John Sununu, R-N.H., took a more cautious approach to legislative initiatives that address the concerns raised by the report. Recommendations offered by the commission are: prohibiting target marketing and imposing sanctions for violations increasing compliance at the retail level and increasing parental understanding of the ratings and labels. Gregg added that he would be developing legislation that would respond to this issue. "Congress should respond swiftly to this report and implement stronger curbs on violence-related, youth-oriented advertising." "We cannot ignore the systematic efforts of the entertainment industry to target young people into watching movies and playing video games which are inappropriate for their age group," he said. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., responded to the release of the report by saying he was outraged. In addition, a number of research efforts report that exposure to media violence is correlated with increased acceptance of violent behavior in others, as well as an exaggerated perception of the amount of violence in society." The report further states that there is general agreement that "exposure to violence in entertainment media alone does not cause a child to commit a violent act," nor is it the lone or contributing factor to youth violence and antisocial behavior.īut, the commission did say that a review of relevant studies revealed that "there is a high correlation between exposure to media violence and aggressive, and at times violent, behavior. Most of the plans targeting audiences under 17 set age 12 as the youngest they would go. Marketing plans for 51 percent expressly included marketing to children under 17. Out of 118 electronic games with a mature rating for violence, the FTC found that 70 percent targeted children under 17. One had as its target audience listeners 12 to 34 years of age. Marketing plans for 27 percent expressly identified teen-agers as part of their target audience. The music industry did not rate much better: Of the 55 recordings with explicit content labels reviewed by the commission, it was found that all were targeted to children under 17. The report quotes one plan as stating, "Our goal was to find the elusive teen target audience and make sure everybody between the ages of 12 to 18 was exposed to the film." Marketing plans for 28 of those 44 movies contained express statements that the films' target audience included children under 17. The undiluted response of the commission is "yes."Īccording to the report, of the 44 movies rated R for violence that the commission selected for its study, the FTC found that 80 percent were targeted to children. The report states that the president raised two questions for the commission to answer: Do the industries promote products that they themselves acknowledge warrant parental caution, in venues where children make up a substantial percentage of the audience? And, are these advertisements intended to attract children and teen-agers?
Clinton asked the commission to investigate whether the movie, music recording, and computer and video game industries market and advertise products with violent content to youths. The report is the result of a request by President Bill Clinton made on June 1, 1999, only a short while after the shooting deaths of students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. But, leaders differ in regard to what an appropriate response from the federal government should be.
Reaction on the report from New Hampshire politicians is unified in that these entertainment media should not be marketing such materials to children. PORTSMOUTH - The Federal Trade Commission has released a report accusing Hollywood, and other entertainment industries, of marketing materials with inappropriately violent content to children.
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