FILMS FOR CHILDREN

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27466, 28 September 1954, Page 14

FILMS FOR CHILDREN

CENSORSHIP SYSTEM “ INADEQUATE ” (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 27. Children should be able to see films that had been made especially for the monthly bulletin of the Wellington Film Society, in a comment on the juvenile moral delinquency report.- It found the present system of censorship inadequate to solve the problems of children and adolescents at the cinema.

The certificate “approved by the censor for universal exhibition” did not mean that, the film was positively suitable for children, said the bulletin. Often at best it meant the absence of any features that made it unsuitable for children. The “A” certificate did more to prevent children from seeing films that would be harmful, but there was a need for films that were more than not suitable for children. The bulletin added: “Action, which means organising the attendance of children at theatres so that exhibitors and distributors will not have the excuse (quite a legitimate one) that it simply does not pay to have special films brought into the country and screened to juvenile audiences, can and must be achieved. Otherwise there can’t be any real answer to the problems of children or adolescents in relation to the cinema.”