Do age limits on films are obsolete in the Internet age
Personally I am an adult and I really like movies and going to the cinema. Recently as I was in the cinema probably the "Prometheus", Ticket Agent would not let a group of kids approximately having thirteen years old, I heard one say to another, "Why should we pay for this movie, if we can download it from torrent."
This made me laugh, because what set age limits for films since most movies and games you can get from the internet.
I understand the limits on cigarettes or alcohol they are danger and can harm the body , but they have the physical form as opposed to movies or games that are in digital form. I do not approve piracy, but I wonder if the movie companies setting age limits, no harm to themselves?
Movie companies don't set age limits. You never mentioned which country are you talking about but here in the US, film companies send their finished to be rated. If the MPAA (the guys who rate movie by what's in it) finds it too gory,violent, sexually charged..etc, it's going to have an R-Rating. Same thing with videogames, only thing that changes really is who rated them.
Either way you need to be 17 or be with a parent, older sibling, or complete stranger who is 18+ to receive those products or services.
To answer your question, yes they are obsolete. There are ways around them
1) Watch an R-Rated movie on a movie channel like AMC, though most movies are at LEAST two years old.
2) The internet: either watch the movie online, or order from a place where you don't need ID ie Amazon (the latter also apply for games rated M)
3) At a theater, buy a ticket for a PG movie then go into the R Rated movie of your choice. Only do this if you know the theater won't check ticket right outside the movie theater room.
Now that I'm of age, those above methods are now obsolete. I now just need my school ID (it has DOB on it) because I look young
_________________
Life is not designed to be fair.....BUT THAT'S NOT FAIR!
MBTI- ISTP
I disagree.
Age limits are not completely obsolete in the internet age. With enough control and decent parenting, children - not teenagers - can be adequately protected against harmful material.
As for teenagers, there comes an moment where peer pressure & curiosity cause desire and pursuit that will result in breaking the law. It's all far too common and part of growing up that it happens everyday.
What has just struck me, however, is the lack of any limits for fiction. Teenagers can easily walk in, buy Fifty Shades of Grey - for example - and come out with what in script is essentially an 18+ movie. They can also buy Stephen King - who's adaptations are regularly 18+, or Burgess, Nabokov, Wyndham, Sade, Réage etc. - all fiction that could be bought by teenagers but would be classed as 18+
However, I don't see any form of restriction being applied to books anytime soon. And yes, the internet corrupts teenagers far too easily, with little restriction and prevention.
Either way you need to be 17 or be with a parent, older sibling, or complete stranger who is 18+ to receive those products or services.
To answer your question, yes they are obsolete. There are ways around them
1) Watch an R-Rated movie on a movie channel like AMC, though most movies are at LEAST two years old.
2) The internet: either watch the movie online, or order from a place where you don't need ID ie Amazon (the latter also apply for games rated M)
3) At a theater, buy a ticket for a PG movie then go into the R Rated movie of your choice. Only do this if you know the theater won't check ticket right outside the movie theater room.
Now that I'm of age, those above methods are now obsolete. I now just need my school ID (it has DOB on it) because I look young
This does not apply to me because I'm an adult and I can watch any movie I like. I'm asking from an ethical point of view because I accidentally overheard discussing where teens usher refused to sell tickets because of age, one advising the other advised to download a movie from the Internet since they can not go to the cinema. That's not entirely ethical practice
But I know that many members of this forum can do this practice;-)
Age limits are not completely obsolete in the internet age. With enough control and decent parenting, children - not teenagers - can be adequately protected against harmful material.
As for teenagers, there comes an moment where peer pressure & curiosity cause desire and pursuit that will result in breaking the law. It's all far too common and part of growing up that it happens everyday.
What has just struck me, however, is the lack of any limits for fiction. Teenagers can easily walk in, buy Fifty Shades of Grey - for example - and come out with what in script is essentially an 18+ movie. They can also buy Stephen King - who's adaptations are regularly 18+, or Burgess, Nabokov, Wyndham, Sade, Réage etc. - all fiction that could be bought by teenagers but would be classed as 18+
However, I don't see any form of restriction being applied to books anytime soon. And yes, the internet corrupts teenagers far too easily, with little restriction and prevention.
You are right but i disagree about books, many of them are are classic for example "Year 1984" by George Orwell is very complex literature, someone may consider it as not suitable for young people. I think books are not the same as movies because books requires reader to books require some intellectual engagement in reading the text of the same cognitive abilities develop the film is mostly visual communication which is not as developing as a book, maybe I'm a little biased because I am a student of library science;-)
I believe that teenagers can read what they are like, some criticize Harry Potter, I'm not a fan of fantasy but I am far from denying young readers to read this book.
I'm not American but from what I know in the U.S. can not impose any age limits on the book because it is probably contrary to the U.S. Constitution.
Some passages leave little to the imagination, and most can be deciphered with basic learning of the fundamentals...
"O my brothers, while I untrussed and got ready for the plunge. Plunging, I could slooshy cries of agony and this writer bleeding veck that Georgie and Pete held on to nearby got loose howling bezoomny with the filthiest of slovos that I already knew and others he was making up. Then after me it was right old Dim should have his turn..."
"...that ivory-smooth, sliding sensation of her skin through the thin frock that I had worked up and down while I held her. I marched into her tumbled room, threw open the door of the closet and plunged into a heap of crumpled things that had touched her."
"“This feels different than the last time—so carnal, so … necessary. He caresses my behind with his long-fingered hands, and I’m helpless, trussed up and pressed into the mattress, at his mercy, and of my own free will. He hits me again, slightly to the side, and again, the other side, then pauses slowly as he peels my panties down and pulls them off. "
...which one isn't the classic? Which one wouldn't you let a 13yr old read? I wouldn't let any teenager read any of them, but one of them is now being read by teenagers, partly from peer-pressure and partly because of curiosity. But, even if we all did agree, we probably couldn't make the changes necessary...
"O my brothers, while I untrussed and got ready for the plunge. Plunging, I could slooshy cries of agony and this writer bleeding veck that Georgie and Pete held on to nearby got loose howling bezoomny with the filthiest of slovos that I already knew and others he was making up. Then after me it was right old Dim should have his turn..."
"...that ivory-smooth, sliding sensation of her skin through the thin frock that I had worked up and down while I held her. I marched into her tumbled room, threw open the door of the closet and plunged into a heap of crumpled things that had touched her."
"“This feels different than the last time—so carnal, so … necessary. He caresses my behind with his long-fingered hands, and I’m helpless, trussed up and pressed into the mattress, at his mercy, and of my own free will. He hits me again, slightly to the side, and again, the other side, then pauses slowly as he peels my panties down and pulls them off. "
...which one isn't the classic? Which one wouldn't you let a 13yr old read? I wouldn't let any teenager read any of them, but one of them is now being read by teenagers, partly from peer-pressure and partly because of curiosity. But, even if we all did agree, we probably couldn't make the changes necessary...
Prohibiting something usually only worsens the matter. As you tell the teen reader a you can not read you're too little to be reading this they will think, "Who do you think you are I will read it and I do not forbid me to do so"
There are other much more serious media than books, so no need to prohibit, even as are erotic overtones bookare better than porn which is quite a lot on the internet.
It is better to talk than to prohibit.
As for the internet age limits as I stated earlier, she also does not help too much because the teenagers as they can not go to the cinema because of age, you just download movie trough P2P.
lostonearth35
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Even G-rated movies can be psychologically harmful to some kids, and as for R-rated movies, I never understood why other kids wanted to see them so badly when they did not appeal to me at all. I don't want kids becoming teenagers before they should, or being emotionally scarred by watching such things. But it seems to me they can watch whatever they want on the internet no matter what unless parents intervene, which they rarely do, and even then the kids just figure out the code that blocks out stuff.
There are kids 12 and under who have videos on YouTube where they act like possessed demons, like just yesterday I had the audacity to check out the channel of some kid that TV Tropes listed in their So Bad, It's Horrible under Let's Players. Ironically the video I saw was about this kid reading what TV Tropes said about him, and he is acting exactly like they had described him. Screeching so hard my ears nearly bled, calling everyone on Tropes vulgar and racist names, and denying he is any of those things in a horrible voice. I wanted to reply "Everything TV Tropes said about you is true, and your butt needs to be whipped with a thousand belts." but I knew what the typical response would be. I stopped watching after maybe one minute lest my hair turn instantly grey. Why are such brats even allowed in online games and social websites?
There are kids 12 and under who have videos on YouTube where they act like possessed demons, like just yesterday I had the audacity to check out the channel of some kid that TV Tropes listed in their So Bad, It's Horrible under Let's Players. Ironically the video I saw was about this kid reading what TV Tropes said about him, and he is acting exactly like they had described him. Screeching so hard my ears nearly bled, calling everyone on Tropes vulgar and racist names, and denying he is any of those things in a horrible voice. I wanted to reply "Everything TV Tropes said about you is true, and your butt needs to be whipped with a thousand belts." but I knew what the typical response would be. I stopped watching after maybe one minute lest my hair turn instantly grey. Why are such brats even allowed in online games and social websites?
Who are you talking about?
I would happily read about it too?
But seriously, I believe that the creation of a forbidden fruit does not help, because people whether we are talking about children, teenagers, adults, and old men, they like to do what is forbidden. Perversity is unfortunately part of the human spirit.
Age limits on visual media (games/ movies/ books/ whathaveyou) are intended as advisory guidelines.
cinemas have collectively chosen to enforce these limits, but even in the age of torrents, they are valid as a guideline.
now, the ages associated with certain 'triggers' can be up for discussion, but i think it's a good thing to keep on mentioning them.
if/when i have kids, i know that they can torrent whatever they want, but they can still see the PG rating when they do, so i'll explain what it means and why it is on there.
most likely, i won't mind them looking "overaged" movies, but i'd want to be there when they do, so i can explain things if they have questions
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