Let a minor into an R-rated movie and end up with a fine or jail sentence?
State Rep. Dave Hogue, R-Riverton, is tired of what he considers local theater operators making little or no attempt to keep children out of violent or sexually explicit R-rated movies. So, the Republican is looking at ways of placing some kind of penalty on movie-house operators who don't enforce the current movie-rating restrictions.
If he can figure out "an approach that will work," Hogue says he'll have a bill ready for the 2001 Legislature, which convenes Jan. 15.
"We have to have some kind of penalty so they (theater operators) will stop doing this," Hogue said.
When Congress considered some kind of action in the spring of 1999 to keep minors out of R-rated films, theater operators and Hollywood producers said the industry would police itself. Theater owners then promised to start carding kids to make sure only 17-year-olds and adults are admitted into R-rated movies.
"But they haven't done anything," Hogue said. So, it appears to be up to the individual states, he added.
Brooke Harper, manager of the Tower theater, an independent Salt Lake art house that screens a broad range of films, said the Motion Picture Association of America, which rates all movies, appoints a rating board "that is not answerable to anyone." To have any kind of criminal penalty for perceived violations of such a board — which has no definable standards for giving out the ratings in the first place — is wrong, she believes.
Rich Taylor of the MPAA said his group opposes any "legal teeth or punishment" being imposed on what is a "totally voluntary" rating system aimed at informing parents and theater owners about the content of movies. "In the latest national survey, 81 percent of parents say the rating system is helpful" to them in picking movies that are appro-
private for viewing by their children. And that's all the rating system is supposed to be, he said.
Hogue said the current R-rating restriction — no one younger than 17 years of age allowed in without being accompanied by a parent or guardian — has become a joke to teenagers.
While teaching in the public schools several years ago, Hogue said he asked his students how they were admitted into R-rated movies. There were all kinds of tricks, or in many cases no tricks needed at all — just buy a ticket and go in.
Sometimes kids would go to a multiplex theater complex, buy a ticket for a PG-13 or PG movie and once inside, pass the ticket-takers, just walking into the R-rated movie they wanted to see. Other times they would buy an R-rated movie ticket but tell the cashier they were meeting their parents inside, or have an older-looking friend buy the R-rated tickets for a whole group of teenagers and then all go in.
Harper said Tower managers "use our own discretion" in deciding which people should be allowed into its films. For example, a year ago when the Tower screened "Orgazmo," a film rated NC-17 (no minors allowed at all), "we carded people" and kept minors out. But when the art house showed "Dancer in the Dark," an R-rated film about capital punishment, "we decided that ideas contained in the film are so important that anyone who wanted to see it, should see it" and no one, regardless of age, was kept out, Harper said.
Legislative attorneys who are looking at Hogue's request say there are problems with the lawmaker's concept of penalizing theater operators.
First, the state can't provide criminal penalties for violation of a voluntary set of standards. And the MPAA's movie-ratings and age restrictions are voluntary, not mandatory.
"We, as a state, would have to set up our own movie rating standards, appoint our own board to rate movies," one attorney said. Then, once the rating code and restrictions are in statute, a penalty for its violation could be adopted. To do otherwise "brings into question freedom of speech issues," the attorney said.
Concerning the idea of Utah having its own movie rating system and board, Harper said: "As a purveyor of world cinema, we believe it is not appropriate for a local board to rate world cinema."
Utah has statutes on pornography. But R-rated movies likely don't meet the pornography standard, the legislative attorney said.
The state also has its Harmful Materials to Minors Act, which has a lower standard in "harmful material" than hard-core pornography. Hogue said he's also looking at applying that act to movie-house owners.
But while some R-rated movies might reach the harmful-material-to-minors standard — depending on the movie and the age of the child attending — "who are you going to get to prosecute it? That's still up to county attorneys or the attorney general," who may have higher crime-fighting priorities, the legislative attorney said.
Hogue realizes the problems in current law and prosecutorial discretion.
That's why he'd like to have a separate standard and penalty, most likely a fine, perhaps in written citation form, that would get theater owners' attention and make them start carding youthful-looking people trying to get into R-rated movies. Theater owners could make a difference if they only tried, he believes.
"I'm concerned about all kinds of stuff" that kids are watching today, said Hogue. Many children may not get into an R-rated movie but they still view violent and sexually explicit movies on rented videos. Video stores, also, should face a penalty if they rent R-rated movies to those younger than 17, Hogue said.
"You see kids all the time using their parent's video card renting R-rated movies. Video employees don't even try" to control or stop the practice, Hogue said.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com