CENSORSHIP OF FILMS

Southland Times, Issue 24860, 28 September 1942, Page 3

CENSORSHIP OF FILMS

Sir, —It was with much interest that I read the report of the discussion on film censorship at a recent meeting of the Southland Education Board, and of the suggestion to be made to the Wanganui Board that the matter be brought up at the next conference. Such a inove is long overdue. When the censorship of films was first introduced, the tag, ‘.‘Recommended by Censor for Adults,” might have acted as a deterrent; but today it is a mere formality, inserted to conform with the regulations. It certainly does not prohibit children from such programmes. The responsibility is thus left entirely with the parents, a great many of whom seem' to view the matter in either of two ways: there are those who have no one to leave with the children, and so they are taken to the pictures (though, to their shame be it said, there are parents who frequently leave a young family alone in the house rather than forego an evening’s pleasure). Again, others hold that the children are too young to understand such pictures, and that they can therefore take no harm. The chairman (Mr S. Rice) spoke of a group of youths who have been making, a nuisance of themselves in Gore. The records of the Juvenile Court prove that the films are responsible for more serious offences in children than this. Moreover, only a slight knowledge of psychology is needed to realize that everything a child sees, hears or does makes its indelible impression on the sub-conscious mind, and what is stored in the sub-conscious mind affects the later development of the child, mentally, morally, and spiritually. In a distracted world like this, where human life is held so cheaply, surely young people should be able to get from the pictures something to act as an antidote to all this insanity, and to give them a healthier outlook on life. Scarcely a day passes, at present, without our attention being drawn' to the Campaign for Christian Order, an order which must affect the whole life of the community. Is this not the time to suggest that the films might co-operate with the Church and help to bring about this Christian Order by producing only pictures that are educative, stunulating and uplifting? s F & NEW ORDER. Invercargill, Sept. 27, 1942.