Dear Mr. Wheeler,
I believe some type of rating system is necessary for all forms of media. As I reviewed your webpage and researched your ratings process, I realized that your committee regulates all interstate and international communications via radio, TV, wire, satellite, and cable. While this is an incredibly important goal and responsibility for your committee, I am sad to see that neither books nor websites are included in this comprehensive list; however, I have a more difficult time accepting that books do not currently have ratings. There is enough evidence and research collected to demonstrate the need for a book rating system as well as the consequences for the lack of such a system.
I am sure you understand this as rating system experts, but the goal is not to regulate the media; the goal of ratings is to provide information to parents to allow them to make informed decisions about media content. I agree with this goal completely. However, I want to mention an interesting statistic: Adolescents are exposed to about 30.23 acts of aggression after reading one hour of novels versus the 18.46 acts of aggression after one hour of watching TV (Coyne & Archer, 2004). I hope you find this as surprising as I did. This same study also recognized two popular teen books, Tweak and Gossip Girl. Did you know that Tweak contained intense profanity including 187 f-words, and Gossip Girl included 107 f-words? Are you kidding? And these popular books are not rated at all? Parents have no idea that their children are reading this garbage. They may know of the general inclination of the plot of the book, but they have no way of knowing that its pages contain excessive levels of aggression and profanity.
Along with novels and books, there has been evidence found that magazines effect adolescents in impactful, negative ways. Several studies have shown that magazine reading is related to body dissatisfaction and several other negative outcomes (Shaw, 1995). Along with body image, it is no secret that magazines, as well as novels, also emphasize sexual behavior and substance use.
Something needs to change—not necessarily in the content itself, but in the parental awareness of the type and intensity of this content. I would bet to say that most parents have no correct estimate of just how much aggression, sexual content, and substance use their children are exposed to in literature. They may assume movies are worse off when, in reality, they could be less harmful in some cases. It would be beneficial to you and your customer satisfaction if you developed a simple rating system for books and magazines. I hope this change will be considered or even mentioned to your board. This is an issue and policy that viewers and consumers of all types of media would appreciate and respect.
Sincerely,
Whitney Robinson
Brigham Young University
References
Coyne, S. M., & Archer, J. (2004). Indirect aggression in the media: A content analysis of british
television programs. Aggressive Behavior, 30(3), 254-271. doi: 10.1002/ab.20022
Shaw, J. (1995). Effects of fashion magazines on body dissatisfaction and eating
psychopathology in adolescent and adult females. European Eating Disorders Review,
3(1), 15-23. doi: 10.1002/erv.2400030105
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