In 1968 Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), established the Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA) in an effort to reduce the amount of objectionable material in films. Prior to 1968, the MPAA required that all films follow Production Code guidelines. The Production Code established what was and was not appropriate to appear in films. In 1966, the MPAA elected Jack Valenti president and changed the code to a rating system based on the amount of objectionable content in a film. The rating system has undergone several changes up to the current rating system. A controversy arose when the Weinstein Co. film Blue Valentine received an NC-17 rating for a sexually explicit scene involving the film's main characters. The film's rating controversy raised the question of the effectiveness of the MPAA rating system. Critics were already questioning the MPAA's effectiveness, but the recent controversy has helped spur those questions. The rating system applied by the MPAA to films is ineffective. The MPAA rating system is outdated. Recent technological advances allow children to watch movies regardless of rating. The rating system worked well in the early years, but recently “kids are getting into movies they want to see. . . . They also see them at home on widely available DVDs, on cable, and via popular streaming services like Netflix and Amazon” (Ebert 2). Even when kids go to the theater to see a movie, they can “theater hop” or buy a ticket to a low-rated movie and squeeze into the R-rated movie of their choice. Both DVDs and the Internet offer children the opportunity to watch films that contain questionable material. Websites that offer the o...... middle of paper ......do not limit violence in films as much as they limit sexual content, they allow children at a young age to be exposed to violent content, which could have serious consequences for the child's future. The MPAA rating system was once a good source for finding out whether a film contained immoral or violent images; currently the system has grown to become ineffective in today's society. Society changes as do films; the content and subject matter have changed for this generation's films. If the system isn't changed, it won't help parents know which movies will be appropriate for their children. Due to the influence and prevalence of films in our society and culture today, a rating system is important, if such a system fails to do its duty, the negative influence films can have on children and youth of tomorrow will be great..