Letter

Senator Romney,

Firstly, I would like to say that I really appreciate your integrity in standing for your values and what you think is right for your constituents, even when that means going against your party. 

I would like to write to you a little about media violence. I am currently a student at BYU, and I am taking a Media, Family, and Human Development class. We have learned about the many adverse effects of media violence. Most children, by the time they finish elementary school, have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence in media (Bushman & Anderson, 2001). 60% of TV programs contain violence, not to mention video games, movies, books, etc. These stats show how prevalent violence in the media, and how much children are exposed to this violence. 

Unfortunately, media violence is not harmless. Over 1,000 studies link media violence and aggression (Strasburger, 2009). In the social sciences, this is an incredibly robust finding. The correlation betwen media violence and aggression is just as strong as the correlation between smoking and lung cancer (Bushman & Anderson, 2001). Media violence has been shown to be related to MANY adverse effects, including aggressive thoughts, feelings, and actions; relational aggression; racism; fear; depression; and anxiety. It's also been shown to be related to lower empathy and prosocial behavior. 

I think that more awareness and education is needed to help Utahns, and parents specifically, make informed decisions about the media violence themselves and their children are consuming. One possible way to inform parents would be more standardized rating systems. Currently, movies, TV, and video games all use different rating systems with various levels of complication. Books have no ratings or content warnings at all. This complicates parents' ability to successfully determine which media is appropriate for their children. Only 31% of parents use TV ratings to help them make media decisions (Gentile et al., 2012). 76% of parents say they want content information, 68% want age recommendations, and 57% want universal ratings (Gentile et al., 2012). I think that creating a universal rating system that incorporates these suggestions (content information and age recommendations) would be a simple way to provide parents and all consumers with better, more easily understandable information to help them make informed decisions about the media violence they consume.

Currently, our rating systems weigh profanity and sexual content significantly more heavily than violence. This is not based in the research at all, since violence has been shown so robustly to be associated with negative outcomes. Here in the U.S., we place less weight on violence in our ratings system than almost all other countries. 

Thank you for reading my message. I hope you consider the possible benefits of a universal, content-based rating system that places a more appropriate emphasis on violence, consistent with the research. I believe doing so would enable parents and other consumers to make more informed decisions, potentially mitigating the negative impacts of media violence, or at least limiting children's exposure.