by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on April 5, 2012
By Kristelle Lavallee, staff member at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Center on Media and Child Health
Are you looking to take the family to a movie but aren’t sure whether your child should see The Hunger Games (PG-13) or Bully (unrated)? If you base the decision on the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) ratings, the answer seems pretty cut and dry—“maybe” to Hunger Games, and “no” to Bully. But are the movie ratings the best guide to making healthy media choices for your children?
Based on the best-selling novel, The Hunger Games is a fantasy story where teenagers are pitted against each other in a battle to the death broadcast on live TV. In contrast, Bully is a “slice of life” documentary about peer-on-peer bullying in American schools.
Both movies center on children and teenagers, but the fictional Hunger Games, portraying “intense violent thematic material and disturbing images” (MPAA’s description) was given a PG-13 rating, while the documentary Bully with “some language” (MPAA again) was rated R. The producers of Bully knew that accepting an R rating would greatly limit the film’s impact as an educational tool for young viewers, so they chose to release it unrated. But when a film is released without an MPAA rating, it comes at a price: Fewer theaters are willing to show it, and those that do will treat it the same way they treat films unrated for extreme violence or sex. Full story »
by Tripp Underwood on April 30, 2010
Trips to the movies can be far more stressful than entertaining for many children with autism. The loud noises, big flashing images, and sudden change in lighting can be over stimulating— resulting in excessive excitement or anxiousness— and often times their reactions are met with glares and murmurs from fellow patrons who mistake their responses as “bad behavior.”
April is National Autism Awareness month. A year ago, in order to offer improved viewing experiences for kids with autism and their families, AMC Entertainment and the Autism Society teamed up to create “sensory friendly” movie screenings. The program is growing quickly. Initially sensory friendly screenings only occurred in a handful of theaters; now over 90 AMC cinemas throughout the country are participating.
“Some children with ASDs (autism spectrum disorders) can be quite sensitive to certain sensory stimuli and can be over-interested in, afraid of, or have an unusual reaction to the sight, sound, taste or feel of things,” says Ellen Hanson, PhD , a staff psychologist and lead researcher specializing in ASDs at Children’s Hospital Boston. Full story »
by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on March 5, 2010
by Dafna Lemish, PhD
Actress Geena Davis’s recent speech to the United Nations highlighted a concern that researchers of children and media have been speaking about for many years. The programs on the screens our children view – on television, computers, movie theaters or even their mobile phones – portray a world of gross gender inequality: Girls still appear marginal to society. Full story »
by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on January 16, 2010
by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on December 24, 2009
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he discussed the effect of movies on babies.
Here’s this week’s question:
Q: My 7-year-old son is extremely good at navigating the Internet. In fact, he’s taught me almost everything I know about using the Web. I have software that blocks him from everything except kid sites like PBS, Nickelodeon, Disney, and the Cartoon Network, where he has spent a lot of time and they seem harmless enough, but recently I’ve been hearing about junk food ads on websites. I don’t think he looks at them, but I’m wondering whether that’s a problem anyway. Am I missing something?
-Websurfing in Washington, DC Full story »
by Annie Cardi on August 14, 2009
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston answers your questions about media use. Last week, Rich tackled the issue of what to say to your children when their favorite sports stars and celebrities act poorly.
Here’s this week’s Ask the Mediatrician query:
Q: They don’t seem to make enough good kids’ movies that don’t feature in-your-face dialog, terrifying characters, fast cuts, or just over-the-top crazy stuff designed mainly for adult audiences (that I have to spend half the movie explaining to my 5 year old). As a Mediatrician and film buff, can you recommend a few of your favorites, either classic or contemporary?
–Frustrated by Films in Framingham, MA Full story »
Other stories we’ve been reading:
