Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Fifth Follow-Up Review of Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording and Electronic Game Industries:Rept. to Congress

摘要

This is the sixth Commission Report on the marketing to children of violent entertainment products by the motion picture, music recording, and electronic game industries. The Commissions initial report, released in September 2000, examined the structure and operation of each industrys self-regulatory program, parental familiarity and use of those systems, and whether the industries had marketed violent entertainment products in a manner inconsistent with their own parental advisories. The 2000 Report found that industry members routinely targeted children in their advertising and marketing of violent entertainment products and that children under age 17 could purchase these products relatively easily. The Commission called upon the industries to strengthen their self-regulatory programs by: (1) prohibiting target marketing to children and imposing sanctions for violations; (2) improving self-regulatory programs at the retail level; and (3) increasing parental awareness of the ratings and labels. The Commission has continued to monitor industry self-regulation in this area, releasing four subsequent reports, all finding that the movie and electronic game industries had made progress in limiting marketing of R- and M-rated products to children, but that the music recording industry had not significantly changed its marketing practices since the Commissions initial report. This Report documents the current state of marketing in the areas addressed in the Commissions previous reports. It includes a review of marketing documents from industry members; the results of ongoing Commission monitoring of television, print, and Internet advertising; and comments from third parties regarding the rating and labeling systems. In addition, it reports on a Commission-sponsored telephone survey of parents and children regarding their familiarity with and use of the video game rating system. It also provides the results of an undercover mystery shopper survey conducted in December 2005 and the spring of 2006, in which young teens attempted to purchase tickets to R-rated movies, or to buy music recordings with a Parental Advisory Label, R-rated and unrated movie DVDs, and M-rated games. All three industries generally comply with their own voluntary standards regarding the display of ratings and labels. But, as the Commission has mentioned in previous reports, the limited anti-targeting advertising standards the industries have adopted still permit the advertising of these violent entertainment products in many of the media most popular with teens. This is particularly true in the evolving online advertising market.