why don't they put ratings on reading material?

Question

I mean Steven King books are like R-rated movies. Anybody can buy Cosmopolitan. How is it different from movies? Ten year olds aren't ready to be buying and reading this stuff.

I hope this isn't a stupid question.

Answer 1

No it isnt a stupid question - it is a very good one. As someone who puts out books that have some spots in them that are probably a hard R or even a soft X, I wonder the same thing. Many books that can be purchased by minors turn into movies that kids cant see, so why should they be able to have the books? Excellent question. Tipper Gore took on the music industry for much the same reason - maybe she needs to take on the book business. Honestly I would support it. I am not comfortable with kids reading my books. Pax = C

Answer 2

For one thing, there's no way a five to nine or ten-year-old is going to pick up a Stephen King book and "get it" - books use imagry, not images. Images (movies, etc.) can be understood at just about any age, but reading requires reading skill and thought and action, while watching a movie is passive.

Personally, I think the idea of having book ratings is a horrible form of censorship. Book are already segregated into "Children" and "Teen" and then other books. If parents don't want their children reading a certain book, fine. But to label all books as inappropriate for any child based on their age is agist and wrong. This is why certain parents ruin libraries for any other child - just because they don't want their child reading a certain book, no child is allowed to.

Also, most kids who read know when things aren't for them. I picked up a Mary Higgens Clark mystery when I was probably about 10. I started reading it, realized it was too old for me, and put it down. I also read Jurassic Park when I was around 11 or 12. Scared me half to death, but I don't regret reading it at all.

Also, because reading involves using prior knowledge, sometimes kids just don't understand exactly what's going on in the more "graphic" parts of books. My friend and I were just talking about this the other day. She'll remember a storyline she enjoyed, and go back and read it and realize she had no idea what was going on in half the book.

Making a decision on what is appropriate based solely on age is not the way to go. Only parents have the right to decide what their OWN children can and cannot read. A system should not be made to hinder the rest of the world because a few parents would rather a rating system guide their choices than their own judgement.

Sorry if some of this came off really angry... I get very worked up about censorship issues - and yes, the question touches the very heart of censorship issues. It is not a stupid question, and I'm glad it was asked, because not a lot of people see ratings as a form of censorship.

Personally, I'm not thrilled that movies, music and video games have ratings, though I think for movies and games there is the slight difference of visual effects being easier to absorb at younger ages.

If you want to learn more about censorship and the first amendment, please see the links below. FREADOM.

Answer 3

In Australia, most people, including Australians would be interested to know that some, a very few however, have an R rating.
One in particular that i can think of is American Psycho by Bret Easton Elis, had an R rating. It is sealed and you must show id to purcahse it.
I was stupid enough to buy it and read it a couple of years ago. I didn't get to the half way point - it had such graphic violence, rape scenes, murder described in vivid detail, that i ended up throwing the book in the bin. It deeply disturbed me and i am an adult - i know why it had a restricted rating, so i am sur ethat if any other books out here are that graphic that they would also have an R rating.

Answer 4

Most ten year olds are so not interested in Stephen King, besides which, if parents are doing their job, we know what our children are reading. I insist that my children let me read the book first.
There are children's books out there that I don't approve of, such as "The Boxcar Children". It's a series of books about a family who have lost their parents and ran away to avoid living with their grandfather. I think this is completely inappropriate for a third grader, but they are available in my daughter's classroom.
I read it first and then decide if it's ok for my little people. I am the book censor. I don't need other people to do that job for me. It's part of being a caring parent.

Answer 5

Books are amongst the last forms of really free expression in our society. And by free I mean: free from restrictions such as the ones ratings might impose. Why is it important for books to be free from those kinds of restrictions? A variety of reasons. I'll give you five.

First, if you dictate that certain groups of people cannot buy books, book sales will suffer; and then you will have fewer writers -- who have a hard enough time making a living as it is -- and eventually you will have fewer and fewer books. (I see this as a problem in and of itself; others may not.)

Second, the nature of written story-telling often requires a level of detail that would be crippling under an MPAA-like rating system. For example, Stephen King doesn't have images and sounds at his disposal the way a filmmaker does; his only tool is words. To try to strike fear into his readers, he can't blast loud music at certain points, or flash frightening images on a screen.... He has to use different techniques, such as deep immersive POV's (points-of-view), where he might take you inside a character, show you what that character is thinking and feeling. And the character might be thinking and feeling something that is way past R-Rated, and necessarily so. (Are all of your thoughts and actions, every day, PG-13?) One of the beautiful things about books is that they are capable of reflecting reality with a depth that would be impossible in any other medium. To take that away (and a ratings system would at least partially do so) would be to take away the uniqueness and maybe even the purpose of reading. (At least as it applies to fiction.)

Third, the slippery slope argument. Rarely applicable -- but in the case of books, history supports making the argument. If you restrict what is presented in books based upon a ratings system (sex? violence? language?), your ratings system must necessarily be based upon something specific, which is usually called a community standard. The so-called community standard has been used in the past, in some societies, to block things such as political free speech, or the dissemination of news. Would this happen if a ratings system were imposed on books? Probably not. And if it did, it wouldn't be for a long time, and it wouldn't be without the ill-intentions of some bad people. But I'd rather simply leave that door closed. Wouldn't you?

Fourth, a ratings board for such an endeavor would have to be composed of vast numbers of people. The sheer man-power it would take to police every published piece of literature year after year would be staggering. Who is going to do this job? How are they going to be paid? Who is going to supervise these people? How would this ratings board account for the correction of judgemental errors when it came to applying the community standard to these pieces of literature? Would the incorporation of such a ratings board be a practical impossibility? It could be done, maybe, but not without unbelievable difficulty.

Finally: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Answer 6

Libraries basically do and divide it into sections(ie.young adult) and
certain ages certainly aren't able to check out reading material such
as Steven King books. I don't think any good book store or whatever
would sell Cosmo to a ten year old. It does appear that even your basic
magazines these day have ads with pictures that speak more than a
thousand words.

Answer 7

because with a movie, you see the stuff on the screen, and the director decides what goes in and who plays. with books, you can imagine the characters, what they look like, and you can control what goes through your mind, what you imagine. you can make it R-rated or a PG.
and on the bright side, at least the ten year old you speak of isn't reading romance novels. every other page there is an X-rated scene!

Answer 8

I think this is why those books and magazines arent sold in the kids section. Its up to a parent to decide what their 10 yr old can and cant read.

Answer 9

It is because most literature that is for mature audiences is harder to read and have more sophisticated words.

Answer 10

That is an EXCELLENT question!!