Assignment #3 - Parental Discretion Is Advised

Today most of the Cd's that you would see on the top ten list would most likely have this warning label on it. It is what children want and what they think is cool, to have the latest rappers CD where he is talking about guns, gangs and hoe's. I think the the labels are a good idea to have. Parents today can barely keep up on all their children get into, from the music they listen to, to their myspace account. I think the labels are a good indicator weather they should be listening to it or not. We have warning labels on everything from Cd's and video games to even out coffee cups telling us the contents is hot, so why not have one on books? Some of the books out there for teen age girls gets a little raunchy and if her mom were to pick it up and just judging by its cover would be happy her daughter was reading a book instead of on the Internet, but she would have no idea what her daughter is actually reading. Schools shouldn't ban books from coming into the library just use the rating system to help dictate whose hands the book falls into. Obviously the rating system isn't perfect, kids sneak into rated R movies, I even remember when I was in high school I went to Media Play to try and buy the new DMX CD, but the cashier wouldn't let me because I wasn't 18 at the time, so I just walked out and had my brother walk back in and get it for me. Nothing is going to be fool proof but its a start.

I think that is definitely appropriate for music, movies, video games and even books to have warning labels. Ratings for all media can help parents have a better understanding of what their children are looking at with just one glance, we all instantly know the difference between PG-13 and R. The ratings are especially important for video games, music is just words, but in video games you can actually act it out. In games like Grand Theft San Andreas, players can recruit new characters into a street gang and take over by leading drive-by shootings against rivals, without some sort of rating how else would parents have any idea what goes on in the game when all their kid tells them is that its just a driving game.

I used to read Goosebumps when I was younger, I don't remember exactly how young but I do remember getting nightmares from them. On Amazon.com the books are listed as unrated and I think to have a rating there could help. For me personally after reading Stay Out Of The Basement, there was no way you were getting me to go down there, it took me years to go down there, even today it still creeps me out at night. The Goosebumps books are classified as Horror, so that right there is an indicator that it might not be to child friendly.