A few weeks back Simon Chapman, a Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney, warned that health organisations were upping the ante to have smoking banned in films. He questioned whether movies, books, drama and entertainment should be seen as part of some ideological state apparatus for promoting health, to be appropriated at will.
It looks like the Australian Psychological Society says yes. Their calling for an R18+ rating for the recently released M. Night Shyamalan doozy, The Happening. This is from their press release:
“This movie, with its graphic and repeated depictions of violent suicides should receive an R classification instead of the MA rating,” said APS President, Amanda Gordon. “We call on the Classification Board to urgently review this rating.”
“Not only does this movie romanticise and sensationalise suicide, but it depicts many different methods of achieving that end. There is good evidence that the reporting of suicides can lead to copycat behavior, and there are many instances of increased suicide rates following media portrayals of suicide. The more detailed the descriptions or portrayals of the suicide, the greater the risk that vulnerable people, including young people or people with mental health problems, may harm themselves.
I’d be more worried about people committing suicide after the credits roll and they realize they paid 14 bucks to see it.
But seriously, should we find calls for censorship from health organisations any less naive or offensive than the calls for censorship from more traditional pro censorship groups? I don’t think so.
