Helping Our

Kids be Safe on

the Internet

Tips for Internet Safety

Eric L. Denna, “Tips for Internet Safety,” Ensign, Aug. 2001, 51

With the benefits of the Internet come hazards. We can take a few precautions that will help us and our children to screen material.

1. Place your computer in an open-access area. Having the computer in sight reminds everyone in the family to be careful about the information they access. It also encourages you to sit down with your children and use the Internet together. If you do not know a lot about the computer or the Internet, ask your child to teach you. They might enjoy the invitation to share their knowledge with you.

2. Talk with your children about the Internet. In a family home evening lesson or as the need arises, periodically discuss with your children how the Internet can be used for good or evil. Help them to understand the importance of accessing only appropriate sites. It is important to resist not only pornography but also graphically violent material or anything else that is not wholesome. Realize too that in some cases hypertext links on an appropriate site could link to other sites with questionable material.

As you talk with your children about appropriate Internet use, encourage them to be good examples to their friends. If they or their friends are accessing questionable information, your children need to feel confident that they can talk to you. Establish a relationship founded upon open communication.

3. Bookmark child-friendly sites. Bookmarking is an easy-to-use feature on your computer that allows you to mark sites you want to visit often. Marking a selection of appropriate sites gives your children a good choice of places to visit when they use the Internet. Once you have accessed a site you would like to mark, click on the word Bookmarks at the top of your screen, then select Add Bookmark.

4. Teach your children to avoid giving out personal information. Establish some house rules about what personal information can and cannot be shared on the Internet. For instance, one rule might be, “I will not give out my street or e-mail addresses or credit card numbers without parental approval.” Discuss guidelines as a family.

5. Check your browser history routinely. Most Internet browsers maintain a history of Web sites visited recently. In some cases, you can press an arrow to the right of where you type an Internet address to see a drop-down list of recently visited sites. Also pressing CTRL-H while your cursor is in the address box will generally show the history.

6. Know the parents of your children’s friends. Your children may use a computer at their friends’ homes or other places. Talk with the parents of your children’s friends to find out if they have blocked inappropriate Internet sites. Knowing the parents helps you become familiar with their family’s entertainment standards.

7. Ask your Internet Service Provider (ISP) about filtering methods to block inappropriate information before it gets to your home. Does the provider filter content? How extensively? If you’re not satisfied with the filtering provided, you can purchase and install filtering software.

8. Share your learning with others. Talk to family and friends about what you and your family have discovered as you have searched the Internet. Ask them how they have avoided inappropriate Internet sites. What sites have proven to be especially beneficial?

 

 

Motion Picture Code of 1930 / 1968 and changes made to Code.

 

General Principles of the The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930

1. No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.

2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and

entertainment, shall be presented.

3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created

for its violation.

Particular Applications

I—Crimes Against the Law

These shall never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation.

1. Murder

a. The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation.

b. Brutal killings are not to be presented in detail.

c. Revenge in modern times shall not be justified.

2. Methods of Crime should not be explicitly presented.

a. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc., should not be detailed in method.

b. Arson must be subject to the same safeguards.

c. The use of firearms should be restricted to essentials.

d. Methods of smuggling should not be presented.

3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented.

4. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for

proper characterization will not be shown.

II—Sex

The sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing.

1. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.

2. Scenes of Passion

a. They should not be introduced when not essential to the plot.

b. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown.

c. In general passion should so be treated that these scenes do not stimulate the lower and baser element.

3. Seduction or Rape

a. They should never be more than suggested, and only when essential for the plot, and even then never shown by explicit method.

b. They are never the proper subject for comedy.

4. Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden.

5. White-slavery shall not be treated.

6. Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races) is forbidden.

7. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases are not subjects for motion pictures.

8. Scenes of actual child birth, in fact or in silhouette, are never to be presented.

9. Children’s sex organs are never to be exposed.

III—Vulgarity

The treatment of low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil, subjects should be subject always to the dictates of good taste and a regard for the sensibilities of the audience.

IV—Obscenity

Obscenity in word, gesture, reference, song, joke, or by suggestion (even when

likely to be understood only by part of the audience) is forbidden.

V—Profanity

Pointed profanity (this includes the words, God, Lord, Jesus, Christ—unless used reverently—Hell, S.O.B. damn, Gawd), or every other profane or vulgar expression, however used, is forbidden.

VI—Costume

1. Complete nudity is never permitted. This includes nudity in fact or in silhouette, or any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture.

2. Undressing scenes should be avoided, and never used save where essential to the plot.

3. Indecent or undue exposure is forbidden.

4. Dancing costumes intended to permit undue exposure or indecent movements in the dance are forbidden.

VII—Dances

1. Dances suggesting or representing sexual actions or indecent passion are forbidden.

2. Dances which emphasize indecent movements are to be regarded as obscene.

VIII—Religion

1. No film or episode may throw ridicule on any religious faith.

2. Ministers of religion in their character as ministers of religion should not be used as comic characters or as villains.

3. Ceremonies of any definite religion should be carefully and respectfully handled.

IX—Locations

The treatment of bedrooms must be governed by good taste and delicacy.

X—National Feelings

1. The use of the Flag shall be consistently respectful.

2. The history, institutions, prominent people and citizenry of other nations shall be represented fairly.

XI—Titles

Salacious, indecent, or obscene titles shall not be used.

XII—Repellent Subjects

The following subjects must be treated within the careful limits of good taste:

1. Actual hangings or electrocutions as legal punishments for crime.

2. Third Degree methods.

3. Brutality and possible gruesomeness.

4. Branding of people or animals.

5. Apparent cruelty to children or animals.

6. The sale of women or a woman selling her virtue.

7. Surgical operations

Source: "The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930," as quoted in Leonard J. Jeff and Jerold Simmons, eds., The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code from the 1920s to the 1960s (New York: Grove Wiedenfeld, 1990), 283–286.
Official Code Objectives (1968)
Motion Picture Association of America

This code is designed to keep in close harmony with the mores, culture, the moral sense and change in our society.
The objectives of the code are:

1.    To encourage artistic expression by expanding creative freedom
2.    To assure the freedom which encourages the artist remains responsible and sensitive to the standards of the larger society

Censorship is an odious enteprise. We oppose censorship and classification by governments because they are alien to the American tradition of freedom.

Much of this nations strength and purpose is drawn from the premise that the  humblest of citizens has the freedom of his own choice. Censorship destroys this freedom of choice.

It is within this framework that the Motion Picture Association continues to recognize its obligation to the society of which it is an integral part.

In our society parents are the arbiters of family conduct.  Parents have the primary responsibility ot guide their children in the kind of lives they lead, they character they build, the books they read, and the movies and other entertainment to which they are exposed.

The creators of motion pictures undertake a responsibility to make available pertinent information about their pictures which will assist parents to fulfill their responsibilities.

But this alone is not enough. In further recognition of our obligation to the public, and most especially to parents, we have extended the Code operation to include a nationwide voluntary film rating program which has as its prime objective a sensitive concern for children.  Motion pictures will be viewed by a Code and Rating Administration which, when it reviews a motion picture as to its conformity with the standards od the Code, will issue ratings.  It is our intent that all motion pictures exhibited in the United States will carry a rating.  These ratings are:

    (G) SUGGESTED FOR GENERAL AUDIENCES

This category includes motion pictures that in the opinion of the Code and rating Administration would be acceptable for all audineces, without consideration of age.

(M) SUGGESTED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES- ADULTS AND MATURE YOUNG PEOPLE

This cateogry includes motion pictures that in the opinion of the Code and Rating Administration, because of their theme, content and treatment, might require more mature judgment by viewers, and about which parents should exercise their discretion.

(R) RESTRICTED-persons under 16 not admitted unless accompanied by parents or adult guardian

This cateogry includes motion pictures that in the opinion of the Code and Rating Administration, because of their theme, content or treatment, should not be presented to persons under 16 unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.

(X) PERSONS UNDER 16 NOT ADMITTED

This category includes motion pictures submitted to the Code and Rating Administration which in the opinionof the Code and Rating Administration are rated (X) because of the treatment of sex, violence, crime or profanity. Pictures rated (X) do not qualify for a Code Seal. Pictures rated (X) should not be presented to persons under 16.

The program contemplates that any distributors outside the membership of the Association who choose not to submit their motion pictures tothe Code and Rating Administration will self-apply the (X) rating.

The ratings and their meanings will be conveyed by advertising; by displays at theaters; and in other ways.  Thus, audiences, especially parents, will be alerted to the theme, content, and treatmentof movies. Therefore, parents can determine whether a particular picture is one which children should see at the discretion of  the parent; or only when accompanied by a parent; or should not see.

We believe self-restraint, self-regulation, to be in the American tradition.  The results of self-discipline are always imperfect because that is the nature of all things mortal.  But this Code, and its administration, will make clear that freedom of expression does not mean toleration of license.

The test of self-restraint-the rule of reason...lies in the treatment of a subject for the screen.

All members of the Motiion Picture Association, as well as the National Association of Theatre Owners, the International Film Importers and Distributors of America, and other independent producer-distributors are cooperating in this endeavour. Most motion pictures exhibited in the United States will be submitted for Code approval and rating, or for rating only, to the Code and Rating Administration. The presence of the Seal indicates to the public that a picture has received Code approval.

We believe in and pledge our support to these deep and fundamental values in a democratic society:
Freedom of choice...
The right of creative man to achieve artistic excellencde...
The importance of the role of the parent as the guide of the family's comfort...

STANDARDS FOR PRODUCTION

In furtherance of the objectives of the Code to accord with the mores, the culture, and the moral sense of our society, the principles stated above and the following standards shall govern the Administrator in his consideration of motion pictures submitted for Code approval:

  • The basic dignity and value of human life shall be respected and upheld.  Restraint shall be exercised in portraying the taking of life.
  • Evil, sin, crime and wrong-doing shall not be justified.
  • Special restraint shall be exercised in portraying criminal or anti-social activities in which minors participate or ar involved.
  • Detailed and protracted acts of brutality, cruelty, physical violence, torture and abuse shall not be presented.
  • Indecent or undue exposure of the human body shall not be presented.
  • Illicit sex relationships shall not be justified.  Intimate sex scenes violating common standards of decency shall not be portrayed.
  • Restraint and care shall be exercised in presentations dealing with sex aberrations.
  • Obscene speech, gestures or movements shall not be presented.  Undue profanity shall not be permitted.
  • Religion shall not be demeaned.
  • Words or symbols contemptuous of racial, religious or national groups, shall not be used so as to incite bigotry or hatred.
  • Excessive cruelty to animals shall not be portrayed and animals shall not be treated inhumanely.
Cited from Gerald Mast (ed.), The Movies in our Midst: Documents in the Cultural History of Film in America, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1982, pp.704-707.

CHANGES IN THE RATING SYSTEM - Since 1968

After the creation of the rating system, the board found that the M category (mature) was regarded by most parents as a sterner rating than the R (restricted) category. To remedy this misconception, the rating was changed from M to GP (general audiences, parental guidance suggested). A year later the name was revised the name to its current label, PG: (parental guidance suggested).

In July of 1984 the PG category was split into two groups - PG and PG-13. PG-13 meant a higher level of intensity than was to be found in a film rated PG. Over the past years, parents have approved of this amplifying revision in the rating system. In September of 1990 two more revisions were announced. First, the board began giving brief explanations of why a particular film received R ratings. Since, in the opinion of the Ratings Board, R rated films contain adult material, they believed it would be useful for parents to know a little more about that film’s content before they allowed their children to accompany them. Sometime later the board began applying the same explanations in the PG, PG-13 and NC-17 categories as well. These explanations are available to parents at the theater (by telephone or at the box office), in certain media reviews and listings, and also made available at www.mpaa.org.

The second, change was in the X category which became NC-17 (no one 17 and under admitted). The X rating over the years appeared to have taken on a surly meaning in the minds of many people, a meaning that was never intended when the system was created. Therefore, the board chose to reaffirm the original intent of the design that was installed on November 1, 1968, in which the adults only category explicitly describes a movie that most parents would want to have barred to viewing by their children. These ratings were all trademarked and can only be used to for film ratings.