The FTC specifically has sought answers to two questions:
Do the industries promote products 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 teenagers? The report found that "for all three segments of the entertainment industry, the answers are plainly 'yes.'"
It is Time To Act
Most of us would agree that our children constitute our most precious national and personal resource. How then in good conscience can we as educators, parents, grandparents, and citizens of this great country permit an industry to systematically destroy impressionable young minds for the sake of monetary gain? It makes no sense at all to me.
It's time to stop glorifying violence. Violence is not amusing. It is not edifying. It is destroying the very fabric of American society. It must stop. Only you and I can make this happen.
Please take time to read the FTC's reports. Discuss them with your friends and colleagues, your children's teachers, your clergy, and your business associates. Together we can affect the necessary changes to end the marketing of violence to our children. Please monitor your children's activities even more closely than you normally do, and take advantage of all the media attention on the FTC report to remind them that violence is not acceptable.
Learn about the entertainment ratings system. It covers music, films and games.
Find out where to file a media violence complaint.
Resources
Marketing Violent Entertainment To Children: A Review of Self-Regulation and Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries (September 2000)
Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Six Month Follow-Up Review of Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries (April 2001)
Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A One-Year Follow-Up Review of Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries (December 2001)
Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Twenty-One Month Follow-Up Review of Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries (June 2002)
Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Fourth Follow-Up Review of Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries (July 2004)
Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Fifth Follow-Up Review of Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries(April 2007)
