The Hayes Code, All Over Again

A few days ago, Salon offered this piece from Henry Jenkins, about the skewering he recieved on a particular MSNBC talk show, and it infuriated me.

Now, to be fair, I have no children, so I may or may not have a leg to stand on when I say this, but I can't stand it when groups of outraged parents get together and show the world how incredilby inadequate they are. For instance, the "Save the Children" pundit Mr. Jenkins was jousting with on this show stated that "parents across the country had purchased [the supremely ultra-violent Playstation 2 game] Grand Theft Auto 3 for their children without any idea of its distasteful contents", to which Jenkins replies in his article:

Hello! The game is called Grand Theft Auto 3. It's rated M for Mature Audiences -- not appropriate for children under 17 -- "violence, blood, strong language." The hit men and prostitutes are right there on the package.

And I whole-heartedly agree. Learn to tell your children "no".