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Educate Your Family
In this world of eroding values, who will step up to
define an acceptable standard of decency?
Creating
a Family Decency Standard
Have
you ever considered a movie's rating in making a decision
whether or not to see it, only to be shocked or feel
betrayed by what is contained? Ratings generated
by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA),
gaming and music labels, TV ratings, and the Supreme
Court's "Miller Test" all attempt to define
what is and what is not decent. Certainly any
meaningful endeavor to protect individuals and families
from indecent entertainment must begin with a working
definition of what is and what is not decent, but can
we depend on the current rating systems to protect our
families ?
Unfortunately,
in the present environment we simply cannot
rely on these inadequate gauges of appropriateness.
In this world of eroding values, who will step up to
define an acceptable standard of decency? Recent
research done on behalf of Communities for Decency suggests
decency standards must originate in
families and communities.
Creating
a family decency standard is one way to empower individuals
to make informed entertainment choices. The following
method of discussing decency standards works well for
adults and children ages 11 and older.
Preparatory
Steps:
- Familiarize yourself with the MPAA rating system
and other public sources on decency standards.
- Set up two one-hour family meetings to discuss family
decency standards.
- Obtain movie reviews on several current movies from
relaible websites such as pluggedinonline.com
or gradingthemovies.com.
Note: Descriptions of movie content are factual
and detailed. CFD encourages parents to use
these websites.
Ground Rules and Intent
- Parents should act primarily as facilitators whose
job will be to listen and learn what decency means
in their family and to carefully guide the discussion
toward the desired end.
- All topics related to entertainment and what the
family views are open for discussion.
Meeting
One: Creating a Meaningful Framework
- Review the ground rules and intent of the session.
- Review the MPAA rating system and other definitions
of decency.
- Allow family members to comment on how these frameworks
help or do not help your family. For instance,
is a PG or PG-13 movies rating an adequate measure
of appropriateness for your family?
- Brainstorm a list of what is sacred to your family.
Examples may include God, our bodies, marriage,
and human life.
- Translate your list of what is sacred into a watch
list of ways in which offensive content is woven into
entertainment. This list may include violence
or taking human life, lifestyles with no respect for
a moral code, use of profanity-laden dialogue, portrayals
of inappropriate sexual relationships--even if those
portrayals do not include explicit images.
Meeting
Two: Creating a Family Standard of Decency
- Review the framework notes from the first meeting.
Discuss other sources of information on movie content
such as current movie reviews from pluggedinonline.com
or gradingthemovies.com.
- Explore point by point the content from current
movie reviews. Do these movies violate what
is sacred in your family? Do they fit your framework
of what is decent or indecent? Should your family
view these movies? Movie reviews may contain
explicit information generating a mature but necessary
family discussion.
- Finalize a list of more specific definitions of
what is and is not appropriate content for your family.
For example: We will not watch explicit
images (violent or sexual) that offend our family's
definition of what is sacred. We will not watch
thematic or interpretive indecency that presents "evil
as good" and "good as evil."
We will not watch movies with profanity or actions
that run contrary to or offend our sense of what is
sacred.
- Examine your library of DVDs, movies, and other
forms of home entertainment. Agree to discard
entertainment that violates your new family decency
standard.
- Commit your family to using pluggedinonline.com
or gradingthemovies.com,
or like information sources for reviewing content
prior to viewing or purchasing home entertainment.
What
One Family Can Do
- Hold Family Councils and decide what our
media standards are going to be.
- Spend enough quality time with our children so
that we are consistently the main influence
in their lives, not their friends or the media.
- Make good media choices ourselves. Set a good example.
- Limit the time of TV watching
or video games or Internet use each day.
- Use internet filters and TV programming
locks.
- Place TVs and computers in a much-used room
of the home.
- Watch appropriate media with our
children and discuss with them how to make
choices that will uplift and build rather than degrade
and destroy.
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