Parents Television Council don't like The Walking Dead's 14 years old rating

[Neil]

http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/news/release/2012/1213.asp


"Throughout its run, the AMC program The Walking Dead has featured some of the most graphic and brutally intense violence and gore imaginable. In the current season alone the show has depicted hundreds of scenes of grisly murder both of living and "undead," but human, characters. The intensely violent content has included depictions of the cleaving of human skulls with a machete, extreme gun violence including graphic depictions of blood and brains splattering after gunshot wounds, and the use of a sharpened human bone as a weapon to stab another character," wrote PTC President Tim Winter.

"The program also has contained numerous instances of crude indecent language, including the unedited use of the word "shit" as well as many other instances of foul language.

"Clearly, this is content appropriate to an adult-only audience, but AMC has rated every single episode of The Walking Dead as suitable for a 14 year old child.

[AcesandEights]

I've been surprised at the lack of this sort of thing to date, or maybe I'm just not tuned into it, either way I can see how the show should be adult rated.

[bassman]

I was surprised to hear the show has a TV14 rating. I don't usually pay attention to those ratings boxes, but I thought I had seen that it was TVMA. I definitely remember seeing those "The following program contains mature content, viewer discretion is advised" screens on several occasions.

Anyway you cut it.....it's up to each individual parent to decide what their children can watch. If you think it's too mature, which TWD clearly is, don't let them watch it. It's as simple as that. No need for any parenting groups to make a big deal out of it. With all the parental controls involved with modern television providers, there's no reason for these people to complain. They're just looking for attention.

[sandrock74]

These groups just go after shows that have followings. The first season was totally under the radar, so none of these groups complained. By this season, its a big enough show for these watchdog groups to crybaby about it. Its on cable, not network television AND as bassman mentioned, it contains the "mature content" warning, so I don't see their complaints coming to much.

[zombieparanoia]

Tell the parents council to STFU. They're part of the christian right problem that made a system where a decapitation is pg-13 and a nipple is R.

[aaron2]

In the starting of the show there is always a statutory warning and if these parents council have so many problems then they should understand that none of us are interested in hearing their so called ratings!

[MinionZombie]

Here in the UK it airs at 10pm on FXUK (soon to be re-branded as "FOX"), has a warning for "graphic violence" at the start, and interestingly while season one was rated 15 on DVD/BR, season two was rated 18 on DVD/BR (I'd imagine the same for season three when it comes out).

These jumped up busybody whingers can piss off though - zombieparanoia makes a good point there.

I can't see AMC listening to these numpties, so I'm not worried in that regard, but they should definitely tell these soccer moms to do one and return to their prescription pills and loveless marriages/half-empty double beds and get a real life. But come on, at 14 most kids have seen a lot of stuff anyway - I was merrily watching The Evil Dead and Day of the Dead at 14, and those are gore-filled, and yet I turned out just fine - must be to do with, oh I don't know, what's that called? ... Oh yeah - good parenting.

I do wonder if these busybody moaners behind this PTC panty bunching brigade are so wrapped up in their self-righteous crusade that they're actually blind to what's going on with their own kids - too busy running off to write a press release, as their kid is struggling with problems at school, or the usual teenage troubles, all on their own.

"Moral Guardians" man ... they creep me out. :shifty:

[Tricky]

As much as I agree with the posters above about bleating moaners etc, I have to say it surprises me just how young some of the viewers are for TWD. I follow some of the cast on Twitter and they often post fan art which gets sent to them by proud parents, some of which has clearly been drawn by kids under 8, and some toddlers, who must be watching the show with their parents. I've no problem with teenagers as young as 13 watching it, hell if I was that age again I'd be all over it, but I really don't think its suitable for primary school age kids or younger. Just my 2p

[MinionZombie]

As much as I agree with the posters above about bleating moaners etc, I have to say it surprises me just how young some of the viewers are for TWD. I follow some of the cast on Twitter and they often post fan art which gets sent to them by proud parents, some of which has clearly been drawn by kids under 8, and some toddlers, who must be watching the show with their parents. I've no problem with teenagers as young as 13 watching it, hell if I was that age again I'd be all over it, but I really don't think its suitable for primary school age kids or younger. Just my 2p

Aye, you're right on that front, I think it's a bit much for single-digit-aged kids, even 10 and 11 is a touch too young for this content. 12 onwards is fine, I'd say (which would be in-line with my promotion to such viewing content) ... although I was watching Alien and The Fly II aged 9, but those were primarily sci-fi, so they didn't have the same 'tone/vibe/reputation' to them within the househole (i.e. more acceptable to the folks).

If I was a parent, I wouldn't be letting my primary school aged kids watch it. Besides, the rich (and important) character and story themes would be lost of them. The most important thing though is parental guidance - when I was watching The Fly II, my Dad made it clear what was reality and what was fiction (although in my arrogant child-like manner, I "already knew that" :p) ... anyway, he made the separation quite simply by saying that the guy who gets crushed by the lift (elevator) near the end of The Fly II would have had a family and kids, and someone at that place of business would have to call/visit his wife and deliver the bad news, and that family would grow up without a father etc - but in actuality it's just an actor, and that was a special effect, and that's the difference.

Straight forward and effective.

There was also probably a slight element of ignorance to certain mediums (particularly videogames) with my folks - as in some of these movies were just things they themselves never really watched (although, actually, they were more the sort of things my Dad would watch, so he knew the score on that) ... but in terms of videogames they had no real idea (I was merrily playing Duke Nukem 3D and Carmageddon (Uncut) when I was 12/13, when both games were rated 18).

There's only so much the producers of media can do to flag up what they deem the appropriate audience for their product to be - case in point - recent research in the UK has shown that most parents still have no idea about videogame content, and it seems they're unwilling to invest a scrap of time to realise that the big number on the front cover relates to the age rating. :rolleyes: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.