Letter

Dear Senator Hatch,

My name is Krista Emrich and I am currently a senior attending Brigham Young University. I am enrolled in a class on the media and we recently discussed the topic of books and the fact they do not have ratings. This issue is of great concern to me, and I believe we should and can do something about it. One study we looked at found there were more acts of aggression in an hour of reading a novel than in an hour of watching television. Television programs have ratings, so books, which can contain more violence, should logically receive ratings. By giving books ratings we will be helping those people who would like to be informed before they stumble across something they may not want to read, just as is done with television programs.

As a reader of books I would appreciate knowing the content of what I will be reading. Titles may be misleading, and there is no warning as to profanity or sexual content in a book. I have personally read books that have had this content that I did not expect by the blurb on the back of the book nor from the title. I do not appreciate this type of content in the books I read and would like to be warned before I pick up a book to read it.

I also feel strongly that parents would benefit from book ratings. Parents want to know what their children are being involved with and should be able to have the benefit of being informed as to the content of different types of media, which includes books. Parents have restricted or cautioned their children from seeing different ratings of movies because they do not want them to see the content of the film. I believe parents also want to caution their children with books the same way they do with movies but are much less able to do so in the absence of ratings. If parents could be informed they can talk with their children about what is in the books they are reading.

Because ratings are not a restriction and are simply a caution to the reader there is no reason to not put them on books. I believe it would benefit people, such as myself, who would like to be aware of the content of books before reading them. For those people who do not want ratings, they are not required to read them and access is not restricted by ratings, so ratings can simply be ignored by these people.

I appreciate your consideration of this issue and hope you see the importance of book ratings for book readers as well as parents. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the issue further, please feel free to contact me with the information provided above.

Sincerely,

Krista Emrich