Do parents care about the MTRCB ratings?

There is no question that most of us in media are aware of the giant steps current chair Grace Poe-Llamanzares has made in the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB). The latest are the MTRCB pictographs of GP, PG and SPG — encoded on various TV programs as guide for viewers, especially parents. But how successful has this been? Positive to negative, say Masscom students of St. Paul Quezon City (SPUQC) in terms of awareness, understanding and compliance.

A report was furnished us by Edgardo Ray Pedroche, teacher of Broadcast Media subjects at St. Paul, which we have condensed. Pedroche created a mid-term project integrating SPUQC’s community extension study coinciding with the pilot project of Pia Morato of the Tomas Morato Elementary School in QC. From respondents of 99-percent parents, more than half agree with the MTRCB ratings of G (general patronage), PG (parental guidance) and SPG (strong parental guidance). The rest expressed non-conformity with occasional lapses in judgement, while others were passive.

Goin’ Bulilit summer cruise with directors Bobot and Frasco Mortiz

Qualitatively, the feedback raises the question as to whether parents are capable enough in discerning which programs are good for their children and which are not? The G-rated TV shows like May Bukas Pa in the past and Goin’ Bulilit of ABS-CBN pose no problems. But what about the others?

If media education would be the answer, who will teach them, then where and when will it begin? Parents are neither uncaring nor insensitive to children’s TV viewing, but do they see the “hidden persuaders” that journalist consumerist Vance Packard suggests exists in media messages, especially advertisements? For instance, Pedroche says, there are phallic and calyx (part of a flower’s reproductive system) symbols in a variety of ads found in beauty products.

Zaijian Jaranilla played Santino for a year in May Bukas Pa

Parents are aware of the MTRCB signs, but it ends there. In the face-to-face dialogue between parents, kids, and the Masscom team, the parents were asked to comment on various TV programs namely cartoons, teleseryes, news and public affairs, game and variety, and reality shows. They were shown video clips of TV shows and asked if they knew what the signs meant, if they agree or disagree with the ratings, if they guided their children in their TV viewing? Feedback revealed parents are aware reality shows are not real and are scripted; they found news personalities projecting themselves more than the news, which they found sensationalized. The safety of some cartoons was also questioned when a parent sadly narrated how a neighbor’s kid jumped from a second-floor window, thinking that he was Superman.

On teleseryes, parents suggested minimizing themes of adultery, rape and violence, during hours given to children, while observing that children are exposed to free television all the time. There was mixed opinion on what shows should be rated G or PG. It seemed to us that only a parent watching with her child could clarify misconceptions.

UNICEF’s Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights simplified into three salient points are — protection from harm (physical and moral), education (extending outside the curriculum to include the community) and child labor laws to protect his normal development, now supervised by DOLE. “This is applicable to child stars who appear on television and in the movies... True, their talent fees are fat,” asserts Pedroche, “but the child’s development thins out if subjected to overnight taping of shows and longer nights and days of shooting for a movie. Won’t these distort priorities in child rearing?”

Opinions of American media icons bear understanding. CBS News’ Walter Cronkite had commented on how “dumbing down the news and holding punches” are foul play in the truth-telling mission of news reportage. Icon of the ’60s, Ed Murrow, has said that “television has no conscience.”

The power, pervasiveness and persuasiveness of media must be tempered. Pedroche believes in a triad of TV program producers, regulatory agencies and viewers to police the airlanes. Only then will inordinate sex content, commodification or control of news and information, blatant untruths in advertising and greed for profits of networks be controlled.

Pedroche was former board member of MTRCB, VP of Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), and standards and practices Manager of RPN Channel 9. Contact St. Paul QC for the full report on the study.

(E-mail us at [email protected].)