Most Popular Video Games, Movies and Music Receive ‘Rotten Ratings Awards’
Lion & Lamb Spokesperson to Highlight ‘Rotten Ratings,’ Show Violent Video Clips at FTC Hearing, Wednesday, October 29, 10:30 a.m. at 601 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.– Kill Bill, The Matrix Reloaded and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, all containing extremely graphic, violent content, top The Lion & Lamb Project’s 2003 Rotten Ratings Awards list for most mis-rated movies and video games.
The awards, announced the day before the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) all-day workshop on the Marketing of Violent Entertainment to Children, highlight problems with the current, self-regulatory rating system, which allows ever-higher levels of violence to be marketed to ever-younger children.
The ‘Rotten Ratings’ demonstrate that industry-funded rating systems currently allow violent, PG-13 movies such as The Incredible Hulk and X2 Wolverine’s Revenge to be released with companion video games rated appropriate for six-year-olds. The awards also focus on over-the-top, gruesome movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Kill Bill that received R ratings rather than NC-17.
"When Quentin Tarantino urges 12-year-old boys and girls to see ‘Kill Bill,’ we know the industry has crossed a line," said Daphne White, executive director of The Lion & Lamb Project. "And when Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, says that ‘an impressionable child would say they've seen worse [than the bloody 20-minute sword fight scene in ‘Kill Bill’] on Wile E. Coyote,’ it is clear that the industry cannot be trusted to come up with a ratings system that is of any use to parents."
"We have let the wolves guard the chicken house for too long. It is time for the government to take action and protect children from marketing practices which are harmful to children’s health," said White.
The FTC Workshop will focus on the effectiveness of industry self-regulation, problems with the ratings systems, and the marketing and cross marketing of violent movies, video games and music to children.
White will also be screening a new video during the 10:30 panel, "Sex, Violence and Video Games," showing excerpts from some of the video games on the Rotten Ratings list, as well as other violent video games marketed to children.
White will speak on three panels:
The Rotten Ratings Awards
In the Video Game Category:
Runner-Up: X2 Wolverine’s Revenge
*Both games are rated as "E" for Everyone - the equivalent of a G-rating - but are based on PG-13 movies.
Runner-Up: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
*Both games are rated as "T" for Teen – the equivalent of a PG-13 rating -- but are based on R-rated movies.
Runner-Up: BMX XXX
*Both games rated M for Mature, but ultra-violent and pornographic content merits an Adult-Only rating.
In the Movie Category:
Runner-Up: 2 Fast 2 Furious
*Critics question why these movies did not receive an R rating.
Tied for First Place: Texas Chain Saw Massacre
*Critics question why these movies did not receive an NC-17 rating for violence.
For The Music Industry: