The Parents Television Council took aim at the entertainment industry on Wednesday, ordering an overhaul of the industry’s rating system and denounced the industry’s lack of progress in reducing media violence.
The watchdog organization is claiming the movie and television rating system is tarnished by “inaccuracies and inconsistencies,” with organization president Tim Winter claiming the entertainment industry has done nothing to reduce media violence since media executives met with Vice President Joe Biden a year ago.
“In one year, the industry has done nothing to reduce media violence, and new research shows the networks routinely assign age ratings for horrifically violent content on broadcast TV deeming it appropriate for children,” said Winter.
During a PTC personal study comparing broadcast and cable television shows, the council discovered that rape, graphic killings, mutilation, cannibalism, dismemberment, beating and guns were featured without parental warning in TV-14 rated primetime broadcast television shows.
Winter continued, “Movies are no better, as new research found that PG-13 rated films contain as much violence as R-rated films.”
The watchdog organization cited research from Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and Ohio State University declaring that gun violence in top-grossing PG-13 films has more than tripled since 1985, and has exceeded gun violence in top-grossing R-rated films in 2012.
The Motion Picture Association of America had no comment on the proposed overhaul.
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