Have you ever walked out of a movie because of bad language or other inappropriate things? Have you ever switched off the radio because of appalling lyrics? Have you ever wondered if a TV show is alright for your kids or family to watch? Have you ever wondered about the content in today's popular video games?
Everywhere we look, we are surrounded with forms of media. Movies, TV, music, video games, Internet, and other forms of media are booming. Unfortunately, in order to achieve something that is unique and draws interest, companies are going further than they ever have before, and this is not a good thing. These forms of media are purposely made indecent in order to achieve the "shock" value. Since most people, especially teens, are so enveloped in these, it can be difficult to know what is appropriate.
Thankfully, with the advancement of the media, there have been some very smart people who have developed websites to help us filter through what we should be seeing, playing, listening to, etc. While there are hundreds out there, I wanted to highlight 3 of these sites and show why they are a great resource.
1. Common Sense Media (Click Here): Common Sense Media is probably my favorite overall resource for checking the content of nearly all forms of media. They check the content of movies, video games, TV shows, music, web sites, and even books. They break down these forms of media into 5 categories to watch out for (Violence, Sex, Language, Consumerism, Drinking/Drugs/Smoking). They give a rating from 1 to 5 depending on how much each of these is found in it. They also give a more detailed description of what is found in the TV show, movie, web site, etc. Overall, this is a great resource and is a good way to check a lot of different types of media in one spot.
2. Kids-in-Mind (Click Here): Kids-in-Mind deals specifically with movies. They break down each movie into three categories (sex/nudity, violence/gore, profanity) and give a rating from 1 to 10 depending on how much of each of these is found in the movie. This is a resource my wife and I use constantly. One time some non-Christian neighbors of ours asked us to come watch a movie with them. We had never heard of this movie and so we looked it up on kids-in-mind. When we did this we found out it had blatant nudity and well over 100 swear words. When we told our neighbors about this, they decided to watch the movie without us anyway and later informed us that they had turned it off half way through. These types of invites seem to happen all the time with people. You may have had something similar happen to you before. With this site, we can know exactly what is in the movie and decide if it is acceptable or not.
3. What They Play (Click Here): What They Play deals specifically with video games. It has game reviews for many games on the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PC, DS, and even the iPhone. This site is not quite as "user-friendly" as the other two but is the best I have found dealing with video games. It essentially gives about a page-long review dealing with what the game is about, why it is rated what it is (Mature, Teen, etc), and some possible question marks that may be found in the game. The video-game industry is absolutely booming, but in order to maintain this, they have had to add more language, more sexual content, and more violence/gore to keep the audience interested. There is much more questionable material found in video games than most people think. This is a great resource to use.
One of the best ways our culture draws us away from God and to the world is through the media. It is easy to let a little bit of indecency into our lives and become use to it. However, with these three sites (and others), we can be much more careful about what our family watches, plays, listens to, and reads. Brett Petrillo
Everywhere we look, we are surrounded with forms of media. Movies, TV, music, video games, Internet, and other forms of media are booming. Unfortunately, in order to achieve something that is unique and draws interest, companies are going further than they ever have before, and this is not a good thing. These forms of media are purposely made indecent in order to achieve the "shock" value. Since most people, especially teens, are so enveloped in these, it can be difficult to know what is appropriate.
Thankfully, with the advancement of the media, there have been some very smart people who have developed websites to help us filter through what we should be seeing, playing, listening to, etc. While there are hundreds out there, I wanted to highlight 3 of these sites and show why they are a great resource.
1. Common Sense Media (Click Here): Common Sense Media is probably my favorite overall resource for checking the content of nearly all forms of media. They check the content of movies, video games, TV shows, music, web sites, and even books. They break down these forms of media into 5 categories to watch out for (Violence, Sex, Language, Consumerism, Drinking/Drugs/Smoking). They give a rating from 1 to 5 depending on how much each of these is found in it. They also give a more detailed description of what is found in the TV show, movie, web site, etc. Overall, this is a great resource and is a good way to check a lot of different types of media in one spot.
2. Kids-in-Mind (Click Here): Kids-in-Mind deals specifically with movies. They break down each movie into three categories (sex/nudity, violence/gore, profanity) and give a rating from 1 to 10 depending on how much of each of these is found in the movie. This is a resource my wife and I use constantly. One time some non-Christian neighbors of ours asked us to come watch a movie with them. We had never heard of this movie and so we looked it up on kids-in-mind. When we did this we found out it had blatant nudity and well over 100 swear words. When we told our neighbors about this, they decided to watch the movie without us anyway and later informed us that they had turned it off half way through. These types of invites seem to happen all the time with people. You may have had something similar happen to you before. With this site, we can know exactly what is in the movie and decide if it is acceptable or not.
3. What They Play (Click Here): What They Play deals specifically with video games. It has game reviews for many games on the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PC, DS, and even the iPhone. This site is not quite as "user-friendly" as the other two but is the best I have found dealing with video games. It essentially gives about a page-long review dealing with what the game is about, why it is rated what it is (Mature, Teen, etc), and some possible question marks that may be found in the game. The video-game industry is absolutely booming, but in order to maintain this, they have had to add more language, more sexual content, and more violence/gore to keep the audience interested. There is much more questionable material found in video games than most people think. This is a great resource to use.
One of the best ways our culture draws us away from God and to the world is through the media. It is easy to let a little bit of indecency into our lives and become use to it. However, with these three sites (and others), we can be much more careful about what our family watches, plays, listens to, and reads. Brett Petrillo
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