Speech

The Danger of Movie Previews

            Television censorship has been around for several years in order to protect our younger generations. Lately, the quality of the censorship has decreased and what children watch has fallen out of the control of anyone. This is a very alarming to those concerned about the future of those generations. In order to protect the youth and innocence of these children we must educate ourselves in the best way possible and protect them at any cost. One of the issues we have yet to be able to control is the viewing of inappropriate movie previews. Highly rated movie previews should not be allowed to be shown on television stations watched by young children. Show on television also have ratings and if a child is watching an appropriate show they can still see movie previews for over rated movies. This can be very damaging for a child to witness, it is not well known by anyone therefore hard to prevent, and the effects can last a life time. 

            The effects of inappropriate movies can be very traumatic for anyone, especially children. 18% of children age ten to twelve are already watching rated R movies. The same effects can occur by simply watching a preview for a movie rated too high. For every ten images seen, two will stay in a child’s memory for weeks at the least. When watching the previews they can cause nightmares, flashbacks, confusion, feeling dazed, fear, anti-social behavior, increased aggression, and being frightened easily and often. Most of these symptoms can last for six months. An innocent child suffering for six months. They did nothing to deserve this and it was no fault of their own. In order to protect these defenseless children we need to do a much better job censoring these previews. The outcome, if we do not change our ways, will be catastrophic. Witnessing these previews over and over is too damaging and cannot go on any longer.     
            Not many people think about the previews of a moving be a problem. When a movie is made the next step is to advertise the movie in the best way possible. That is done by taking the “best” parts of the movie out and making a 30 second to a minute clip about the movie. In other words, the scariest, funniest, most entertaining, or most inappropriate scenes from the movie. If that movie is rated R then shouldn’t you have to be able to see the rated R movie in order to see the preview? This is not the case. Television shows have ratings as well. This issue is that a rated R preview could premier on a television station where the shows are only rated PG. In a survey I administered in February 2013, 60% of people did not know of this as a problem. This was very alarming and needed to be fixed.

            When a child has a traumatic event in their lifetime they all react differently. Some can block it out and show no emotion to the experience at all and others find it more difficult to deal with. Neither way of coping is good. To ignore the situation can leave unresolved issues and only puts off the situation until to many emotions have built up it is too difficult to deal with. Others that have an immediate reaction might seem to feel better about the experience in the long run, but they will always have difficulties with it. This is most likely because children at that age level do not have the mental capacity to differentiate what is real and what is not. That being the reason for ratings that bane the exposure of inappropriate material. No issue can be resolved without proper treatment. This is happening every day and all over the world. Not everyone is, nor can be, helped successfully. When the situation goes on like this the children only suffer. With all these issues unresolved for so long we are building up an enormous emotional problem. Over time the victim can develop a fearful and negative view on the world. Psychologically, they will be mentally scared, which can affect their behavior in years to come. We have yet to find a solution to this problem and no one can afford to wait any longer for one. These life lasting traumatic events need to be stopped and that will not happen on its own.   

             This is a problem and will continue to be until action is taken. People need to take responsibility for what is being viewed on television. The public must be informed about the dangers first. With this being so unknown, makes it even more sever. While this problem cannot be solved overnight, it still needs a solution put into action as soon as possible. Waiting too long to act on this issue will be catastrophic. Be responsible for yourself and others around you and remember ratings are in place for a reason. No child should have to be afraid of falling asleep at night. Reoccurring nightmares torturing them every night. Wait to see inappropriate movie material at an appropriate age.