FTC continues to make me laugh.

[ScottotD]

I've always found this crap and stuff like screenit hilarious.  Their arrogance just amazes me, as if the media industry has to bow to them,

Despite some effective self-regulation since 2000, the movie, music and videogame industries continue to market violent content in ways that are easily seen by kids, a Federal Trade Commission report concluded, according to Variety.

Vidgame retailers have made "significant" progress in restricting sales of M-rated games to minors, but movie and music retailers have only posted "modest" improvement on similar sales of adult-oriented product, the researchers found.

"Self-regulation, long a critical underpinning of U.S. advertising, is weakened if industry markets products in ways inconsistent with their ratings and parental advisories," said Deborah Platt Majoras, head of the FTC, which released the report Thursday. "This latest FTC report shows improvement, but also indicates that the entertainment industry has more work to do."

Report makes six recommendations, from establishing better target-marketing standards to urging Hollywood to reconsider the marketing and selling of unrated DVD versions of R-rated movies. While the FTC promises to continue monitoring the situation, it also continues to support industry self-regulation.

Report is the fifth in a series the FTC began in 2000, but the agency called the latest "the most comprehensive" of all.

According to the FTC, the new report found that "all three industries generally comply with their own voluntary standards regarding the display of ratings and labels. However, entertainment industries continue to market some R-rated movies, M-rated videogames and explicit-content recordings on television shows and Web sites with substantial teen audiences."

Using unaccompanied minors, federal researchers learned that 39% could buy a ticket to an R-rated movie last year, compared with 46% in 2000; 71% could buy an R-rated or unrated DVD (compared with 81%); 76% could buy an explicit-lyric CD (compared with 85%); and 42% could buy an M-rated vidgame (compared with 85%, marking the greatest decline).

For Hollywood, the positive findings included acknowledgement that most TV advertising for R-rated movies and unrated DVDs did not appear on shows for which the under-17 aud is greater than 35%, a standard the industry voluntarily adopted. "Nevertheless, the report notes that a 35% standard still permits advertising on the vast majority of shows most popular with teens," the FTC stated.

Report also noted that the movie industry has adopted no standard for Internet advertising and pointed out that "violent R-rated movies were routinely advertised on Web sites popular with kids: 18 of the 20 movies studied by the commission were advertised on Web sites where more than a third of the audience was under 17. The increasing prevalence of marketing unrated DVDs containing content that might warrant an NC-17 rating, coupled with the poor performance of retailers in restricting the sales of such DVDs to unaccompanied children, is a particular cause for concern."

However, the MPAA has adopted standards for Internet advertising, specifically calling for no ads for R-rated pics on all-aud Web sites.

Report hailed the recording industry for having significantly cut back ads for explicit-lyric music in magazines popular with teens. Unlike movie studios, the labels have not adopted any percentage-of-audience standard regarding advertising, but the FTC implied they should: "The report notes that ads for explicit-content music routinely aired on cable television shows and Web sites with a teen audience of 40% or more. The industry also needs to do a better job of displaying the explicit-content logo in television advertising."

The vidgame industry voluntarily agreed not to advertise M-rated games on Web sites with an under-17 aud of 45% or more. The FTC said that while ads for these games are diminishing on TV shows teens like, "The report suggests that the (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) is not adequately enforcing even this limited standard" for the Internet. "The videogame industry generally provides clear and prominent disclosure of rating information in advertising; however, the ESRB has not adopted the commission's previous recommendation that content descriptors for games be placed on the front of game packaging." Report also noted that roughly 75% or more of parents find the game rating system useful, but they also feel it could do more.

Industry reps accentuated the positive.

"As today's report affirms, the movie industry is doing a good job overall providing information to consumers and marketing films in an audience-appropriate manner," said MPAA spokeswoman Gayle Osterberg.

"We're pleased that the commission recognized the industry's efforts and progress regarding the use of the Parental Advisory Logo," said Recording Industry Assn. of America spokesman Jonathan Lamy. "Music is a unique art form that is subject to the interpretation of the listener, and so the PAL has worked better than hard and fast rules."But at least one advocacy group was dubious. "The FTC's report on marketing violent entertainment to kids illustrates that the industry has a long ways to go before it can legitimately claim that it's effectively regulating itself," said Jim Steyer, chief exec of the nonpartisan org Common Sense Media. "The data show that underage kids generally have little problem buying or renting violent media titles."

1) Kids like things that scare their parents, they always have and always have.
2) So are the 'ratings' on games and CD's actually enforced in the US?
3) Exactly how do these nutters get enough funding to do 'reports'?

[MrTorso]

2) So are the 'ratings' on games and CD's actually enforced in the US?

By law? There might be a few counties here and there that have something on the books about Tipper stickers and ESRB ratings but as a whole if any store is carding ffor those items they are doing it on their own.

[Hobbit]

Stuff like this from the FTC should never make you laugh.  All of this 'please think of the children' bullcrap is just another way for politicians to overstep their Constitutional boundaries and take away your freedoms.  With the presence of the First Ammendment, things like this simply shouldn't even be discussed.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

With the presence of the First Ammendment, things like this simply shouldn't even be discussed.

lol what a silly thought

[ScottotD]

why?

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

is there ever really a reason something shouldnt be intelligently debated and mulled over?  in my opinion no.

[ScottotD]

I don't see how a group of people with their own clear agenda and acting on their own behalf releasing a 'report' telling others how to do business is a debate.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

just out of curiosity isnt the FTC, the federal trade commision which would imply they are part of the government.   ill be the first to admit im totally wrong here but im pretty sure thats what they are. 

[pyro]

I think it's a safe bet they are....


I'm curious what these shows they talk about are though... do these include shows that they're not supposed to be watching in the first place according to the TV rating system like Adult Swim and South Park?

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

I'm curious what these shows they talk about are though... do these include shows that they're not supposed to be watching in the first place according to the TV rating system like Adult Swim and South Park?

id imagine that is a yes,  Do they advertise to kids though?  in a joe camel way do they?  im not certain they do really

[pyro]

they're only advertising to kids if the product is actually appealing to kids already, I've never really seen an ad for any of these sort of things specifically aimed at kids...... and of course these are morally righteous adults that are saying what influences kids

[gbeenie]

just out of curiosity isnt the FTC, the federal trade commision which would imply they are part of the government.   ill be the first to admit im totally wrong here but im pretty sure thats what they are. 

That's exactly what they are. More importantly, no one who works for this agency is elected; we have NO say in who has positions of authority there. This is the biggest of the inherent dangers of bloated, oversized federal government (and it's been a problem for most of the last century; sorry, Bush-haters); these entrenched bureacracies start to develop, and become so widespread that wiping them out is a virtual impossibility. Even Reagan, who HATED the size of federal government, was unable to really break through that.

Perfect example of the problem: when the Republicans gained control of Congress in 1994, one of their promises was to eliminate the Departments of Energy and Education (an excellent idea; both departments spend untold billions of dollars every year, and provide literally nothing in return); unfortunately, the naive Republicans (who hadn't had control of Congress in forty years) failed to realize just how much in love their own constituents had become with all these government programs, so, instead of accomplishing anything useful over the next twelve years, they frittered away their time on stupid, hateful nonsense like the Defense of Marriage Act (passed, BTW, with the help of substantial numbers of Democratic Congressional representatives, and signed into law by William Jefferson Clinton).

[ScottotD]

ADAM AND EVE, NOT ADAM AND STEVE!


I know very little about your whole government dealie (besides what I've picked up from The West Wing) but surely the department of Education would be fairly important.

[gbeenie]

ADAM AND EVE, NOT ADAM AND STEVE!


I know very little about your whole government dealie (besides what I've picked up from The West Wing) but surely the department of Education would be fairly important.

Not a single person in this country is educated by the Department of Education (just as, not a single watt of energy is produced by the Department of Energy).

[ScottotD]

okay, the department of education basically runs the public schools here.  Even if not everyone uses it, education's a pretty important thing to completely privatize (although if it lead to teachers being paid what they should be it'd be worth it)