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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: Can you tell a fake ID from a real one?
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John Hawkinson
Film God
Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 10-29-2006 08:27 AM
I understand you said commercial chain theatres. I am still skeptical. So, again, I ask, what's your source?
Do you perhaps mean NATO? I believe most chain theatres are members of NATO (not MPAA), and that NATO has taken a relatively firm stance that it believes rating should be enforced.
But that's not the same as saying all NATO members enforce the ratings, nor is it saying all NATO chains enforce the ratings. And it is certainly not saying that all NATO chains enforce the ratings to the degree you suggest.
You say:
"R - NOBODY 16 or younger gets in unless Mommy or Daddy will sit with them and hold their hand for the ENTIRE presentation."
I don't think this is at all required.
In 2000, after Columbine, NATO released a "12-point Ratings Initiative", but even that was extremely wishy-washy on what is required of members:
quote:
2. Each company will take steps to reaffirm the NATO ID-check policy for R and NC-17 rated films, and will examine its operations and training policies to improve compliance with the policy.
3. Each company will assess current practices whereby managerial personnel visit company locations for other reasons, and will endeavor to add ratings enforcement compliance inspection to the duties of said personnel.
4. Each company will appoint a senior executive compliance officer(s) to review on a regular basis the company’s ratings enforcement practices.
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6. Each company will endeavor to post personnel at the auditorium entrance for particular, extreme R-rated films, and for all NC-17 rated films. For films so designated, individual companies will seek financial assistance from the distribution company responsible for the film to help defray labor costs.
It does not require compliance, merely that members will try to "improve" compliance. Notice that nowhere does it specify exactly what compliance means. The best I can find is the formal MPAA/CARA definition:
R: Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
This makes no claim about parents being required to sit with their children for the whole movie, nor does it require the accompanying adult be a parent.
Furthermore, NATO admits that compliance is weak. On their web site, they offer a 100-page PDF, TC Follow-up Report on Marketing Violent Entertainment to Kids and Ratings Enforcement, which on p.8 notes, "Finally, the Commission’s undercover shopper survey of children’s access to tickets for R-rated films indicated significant improvement by movie theaters, as only 36% of the 13-16- year-old shoppers successfully purchased tickets. In contrast, DVD retailers – included for the first time in this survey – sold R-rated DVDs to 81% of teen shoppers seeking to buy them."
So, once again, I ask you: What's your source?
--jhawk
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 11-26-2006 03:28 AM
Seems to me we are dancing around the originally posed problem --i.e., how far does the theatre have to go in trying to determine if an ID is a fake or not. Seems to me that since #1, there is no LEGAL requirement to enforce MPAA ratings, and #2, there is the practical limitation as to how much time box office personnel can take to determine if an ID is authentic, a "reasonable" determination would pretty much be that you look at the ID, and if it "looks reasonably" authentic, that would satisfy the theatre's obligation -- moral, contractual or whatever -- to comply with the MPAA rating suggestions.
Here in NYC, and probably elsewhere, it is the LAW not to sell cigarettes to minors. The law doesn't say you have to card people, but of course, that's the safest way to insure you are not breaking the law. On the other hand, in a busy business, any more than a cursory look at an ID would be impractical due to the time factor. I think "reasonable" is the rule of thumb in implementation and that would be the point on which any legal action would turn.
In other words, would any lay person (say the judge or jury in any legal action) look at the kid who was let in and think: he certainly looks 18 and not 15. Or if presented with the questionable ID, would they reasonably conclude that this ID looks authentic? If so, that would satisfy any obligation on the part of the business establish. No one expects that a business hire off-duty CSI forensic experts to scrutinize ID cards to make sure they are not fake.
As for parents freaking out because a theatre let little Johnny into a restricted film, I think all that the manager would have to do is to point out that it's because he used a forged ID. And how come mom and dad have some pre-felon running around with forged IDs?
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