Aversion To Movie Violence Drops

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - For all the talk, Americans don't seem to be as upset by violent movies as they used to be.

An Associated Press poll, taken in the midst of a debate over the impact of violent movies and television programs on young people, found that 40 percent of adults said they would be less likely to see a movie if they knew it contained violence. That's 20 points lower than the percentage who answered the same question the same way a decade ago.

In the poll, conducted by ICR of Media, Pa., only one-third of respondents said violence is the biggest problem with current movies, about the same percentage who said tickets cost too much. An additional 17 percent said movies aren't as good as they used to be, and 13 percent said there is too much sex on the big screen.

"People these days don't see too much wrong with the violence in movies," said Joan Hogue, a recent retiree from Denver. "They are getting desensitized to all that stuff."

Stacy Cortez, a 22-year-old student from Las Vegas, said movie violence doesn't bother her "because it's all fake." But she said young people should be kept away from movies with sex "because they see how to do it."

Movie violence became a hot issue after the school shootings in Littleton, Colo., in April. Several measures designed to curb movie violence were introduced in Congress, but they have not been adopted.

Theater owners pledged this month to check IDs to prevent youngsters from seeing R-rated movies. In the poll, 52 percent said the checks would be fairly effective or very effective, while 45 percent said they would be not very effective or not effective at all.

Those who doubt that the restrictions will help shield young people from violent movies point to the easy access to videos, the use of fake IDs and the ability to switch movies after they enter a complex showing several films at a time.

Kathleen Hansen, a teacher in Champaign, Ill., for emotionally disturbed children, said she hears children as young as 5 years old talk about seeing violent films.

"They haven't seen Bambi, but they've seen Scream, Scream II and Chuckie (about a violent doll)," she said. "These kids don't go to the movies. They watch the movies on video at home."

According to the poll, women and older Americans were less likely to see a movie if they knew it contained violence. Almost half of the women surveyed fell into the category, compared to 30 percent of the men. Two-thirds of those over 65 said violence would probably keep them from seeing a movie.

The poll also found:

Whites, 42 percent, were more likely than blacks, 28 percent, to say violent content might keep them away from a movie.

Women were twice as likely as men to say hearing about nude scenes might keep them from seeing a particular movie. People over 65 were three times as likely as those under 35 to stay away because of nudity.

People who have gone to only a couple of movies this year were three times as likely to be troubled by movie violence as those who have seen more than 20.

Thirty-seven percent of adults have not seen a movie in a theater in the last 12 months, and 22 percent have seen only one or two. Five percent of the population attended more than 20 movies in the last year.

The telephone poll of 1,005 adults was taken Friday through Tuesday. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

AP-NY-07-02-99 1335EDT

Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.