Here’s a NYTimes article about the increase in sex and violence in the films shown on flights:
My two favorite quotations:
“Parents have to be responsible for the actions of their kids — whether they shouldn’t look at the screen or look away.” Riiiiiiiiight. Does he realize how stupid that sounds? Has he ever seen a child? And does he realize how cramped the seating is? Those of us wanting to do something besides watch the movie have to bring our own earphones to drown out those around us, and sit curled up so that flashes of light don’t distract us every .0005 seconds.
“If we take all the good things out, there’s not going to be a lot left to play.” Well, there you have it, folks.
You know, it’s funny: I grew up in a house with lots of action-filled “guy” movies, much like the ones mentioned in the article, but I think there’s no question that the airlines are being shady. While we can all argue about what adults should or should not be seeing in movies (or whether we should be seeing movies at all), it should be pretty clear what kids should not be seeing. If there’s a kid within 10 miles of me I get extremely uncomfortable with modern media of all sorts: msn.com, movies, advertisements, television, or music. It’s amazing how they turn on your radar for inappropriateness. Which is one reason I’m wondering whether we can have utterly permissive rules for adults without much of that trickling down to our kids. Yeah, yeah, you just wait ’til I have my own: I’ll become even more fierce about stuff like that. But I’ve fielded too many questions from little ones about inappropriate things that they see in public, where I can’t protect them and surround them with kid-only things, and I work on a college campus where it’s clear that young people are going to do their best to grow up as fast as possible. If that’s the case, couldn’t we make growing up something that brings them into a good world, rather than one in which they can get drunk, get laid, and pay taxes?
Erin
Alan Schmierer