MPAA Ratings

(WARNING, This post is a rant and may offend some readers don’t continue reading if you have kids, are an adult, or you like the MPAA, or are easily offended)It’s not usual for me to Rant about companies or policies… but this is something that’s been bothering me for a while, and today I’ve had it. Early in the morning when I was in school, in the middle of my computers class, not doing work like always… I went to add a post to my site, and Apparently www.thegermz.com contains “R” rated content.

According to this site, my website “May be suitable for high schoolers under the supervision of an adult. Includes adult material, drugs, violence, gambling, un-moderated forums, social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, blogs, and dating” when have I ever talked about drugs, gambling, and violence?… And what forums? Sure I talk about social bookmarking and networking sites, but since when are they filed under “R” rated content?

I think the Donkeys that rate these websites, need to step outside for a moment and realize that we are not living in the 1970s anymore. Sure, I say this because I’m 14. But if you look at the news you’ll notice kids know as much about the “real world” as parents do. They know about the drugs, the gambling and sex, and specially they know about the “Hardcore” language, go to LA, Compton or any other City that you want, and ask a kid what **** means, And I bet that he’ll tell you what it means.

I believe that if a kid doesn’t know about the so called “bad” things in the world, at a young age, it won’t teach him to be as mature or to handle problems as good as it would if he were an adult and was told that. What the kids need, is not annoying ratings that won’t allow you to watch the movie you want, what we need are responsible parents who instead of shooting Heroin, leaving for work, and dating are there with their kids, teaching them how to behave and what’s right and what’s wrong.

Bad Words
I have no problem with kids saying “Bad” words. I do it myself.. not on purpose as it sometimes slip, what I have a problem is with the parents who say the “bad” words next to their kids, confusing them from what’s right and what’s wrong. If you were to see your dad calling everyone a ‘name’, you’d do the same thing because you wouldn’t be able to differentiate what’s good and what’s not because when your parent is saying it, it’ll become a common word for you, and you’ll just sat it like it’s nothing, and then when someone else who doesn’t have the same values you have, hears the word they’ll judge you for saying it.

Gambling
Oh come on! In my old school we used to play cards and bet money on it. We didn’t play black jack or any of those games… we played “Donkey”? Or some kind of game named after a four legged fury animal. Anyway, I was 13 last year and I used to play that game everyday, of course I wasn’t betting a lot, it was just quarters and dimes, but some of my friends were playing for a higher amount. Usually $10 dollars or more.

Do you see anything wrong with a kid playing a gambling game? I don’t. It’s a bad experience to gamble, but if the kids are doing it at a young age, they’ll learn that they sometimes loose in these games and that playing them might not benefit them, and sometimes might end up hurting them.

I have no problem gambling, and like I said I used to gamble in my old school. Some of my friends did have a problem with gambling as the first thing they would do when they came from school was open up a fresh deck of cards and start playing, but I’m more than sure that they are not as “Addicted” as they were the year before.

People have faces in their lives. You may like something one day, and then hate it the next day…. you won’t teach a kid not to gamble by grounding them, or telling them not to play it. The only way you can teach them is by letting them do it.

Sex
Come on!? Does the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) really believe kids don’t know about it? If they do, then why in the hell are there pregnant teens? Now I’m not saying that I have a problem with it, it’s their life they can do what they want with it. And well if a little kid is born then I think the kid is supposed to get as much attention and love from their teen parents as they would if the parent was an adult.

Conclusion
When you go to the movies you always see that there are movies rated “R”… and you are suppossed to be 17 or 18 years older in order to watch the movie, or you must be accompanied by an adult. The movie may be rated R because it contains, Gambling, Sex, hard language or Drugs which according to the MPAA kids under 18 should not be watching as they are not “Ready” to handle that content yet. But the funny thing is, that you NEVER see an 18 year old coming out of a movie theater with a surprised look, as if they just found the sins of the world (gambling, drugs.. etc).

(End Rant)