RTR2N5JT.jpg (Photo : Reuters)
A new movie-rating system for children was released in China to help parents protect the youth from age-inappropriate contents, Women of China reported.
Lu Yufei, a doctorate from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced the new rating system. It focuses on children and is considered as the first of its kind in China.
Under the proposed system, movies and television programs fall into one of five rating categories: TV-K (2-6 years old), TV-G (6-7 years old), TV-7 (7-10 years old), TV-PG (10-14 years old), and TV-14 (over the age of 14).
China has no movie-rating system for children and releases films that are deemed suitable for all ages. The country's movie-review agency, State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), has strict criteria with respect to violence and sexuality. The agency approves some mature-themed plots, with the view of preserving the stories' wholeness and artistic quality. For the movies to be approved, SARFT must screen them to make sure that they conform to the rules that forbid 10 categories of content, including promoting obscenity and violence.
Zhou Nianli, a child development psychology professor, said that a lot of the movies and television shows for children in China are prone to violence and use dirty and inappropriate language. She also added that most of the movies and television shows for children are created by adults with a lack of taste.
The significance of releasing the new movie-rating system is to help parents control the watching habits of their children, Zhou said. But she said that the new system is not enough to solve the deeply rooted problems. She suggested that children should be offered with better choices of movie and television shows.
