Retailers Step Up Policing of Home Videos

Bob Edwards wishes he had it as easy as theater owners when it comes to keeping kids from watching violent movies.

Edwards owns two Movie Man video stores in Greensboro, N.C. And while it’s no problem policing R-rated films--like theater owners, he’ll check IDs or seek parental permission--the vast number of unrated videos he and other rental dealers typically carry can present a problem.

Some are simply low-budget movies, often shot directly for video, that the producers never bothered to take to the Motion Picture Assn. of America for a rating.

Sometimes, however, producers will restore racy or violent scenes cut from the theatrical version to achieve the desired MPAA rating and then offer video retailers both the rated and the unrated version of the same film.

And on video, it’s the unrated version that tends to do the lion’s share of the business.

“When we had ‘Showgirls’ and ‘Striptease,’ the unrated versions rented three times as much as the rated ones,” said Matt Feinstein, vice president of Marbles Entertainment, which operates 11 video departments in Los Angeles Vons and Lucky supermarkets.

As with many retailers, Feinstein has what he considers a virtually foolproof method of keeping kids under the age of 17 from renting R-rated product without permission. Rental memberships are only assigned to adults, and if they don’t want their children renting R-rated videos, they can check a box on the application form and it will be noted in the computer.

But when it comes to unrated products, it’s sometimes hard to tell why the film doesn’t carry a letter grade. Feinstein said he makes sure his managers and clerks watch all unrated product before it goes out on the shelf, “So if it’s offensive we can warn our customers.”

In the wake of congressional calls for more policing of age-restricted movies, however, Feinstein is going one step further: Unrated movies with explicit sex or violence will be tagged after their initial screening by staff, and copies will not be rented to anyone under the age of 17 unless the parent says it’s OK.

“People are much more emotional about this issue,” Feinstein said. “So we’re going to start doing a lot more of this.”

Feinstein isn’t alone. In the wake of the Littleton, Colo., school shootings and renewed pleas to keep violent movies and video games away from children, video retailers are stepping up their efforts to police age-restricted products--while conceding that the plethora of unrated videos that continues to pour into their stores could represent a policing nightmare.

Blockbuster Video, the nation’s No. 1 rental chain, has had a policy for several years of not renting age-restricted videos to minors without parental permission.

“On our membership profile you’re given two choices, and one of them is that you don’t want anyone under 17 whose name is on the membership card to be able to rent R-rated movies,” Blockbuster spokeswoman Liz Greene said.

Unrated videos represent more of a challenge, Greene said. If movies are issued in both rated and unrated versions, it is assumed the unrated version is more graphic, she said. They put a sticker on it that says “Youth-Restricted Viewing,” and treat it like they do an R-rated movie.

“Mistakes can be made, and you are going to have cases in which kids rent something they shouldn’t have, but for the most part it’s worked for us,” Greene said.

Hollywood Entertainment Corp., the nation’s No. 2 video rental chain, has a policy similar to Blockbuster’s regarding R-rated movies.

Unrated movies aren’t a problem, according to Hollywood President Jeff Yapp, because if videos come out in rated and unrated versions, the unrated version doesn’t get bought.

“We never carry anything above an R,” Yapp said. “Some things may slip through, but for the most part we have been real clear on that. And if we get films in that are direct-to-video and don’t have a rating, our buying committee views them and if there’s anything questionable, we won’t buy it.”

Yapp said he’s most concerned about video games. “We don’t have [a policy] yet, because we are confused,” he said. “Why don’t the movie and game industries start to adopt the same criteria, so the public doesn’t have to look at three different standards?”

The Video Software Dealers Assn., a national trade group for video retailers, hopes to address some of this confusion by resurrecting its Pledge to Parents campaign.

VSDA President Bo Andersen and two board members were in Washington last week, briefing White House domestic policy advisors on the renewed campaign, which was launched in 1992.

The pledge asks video store owners to promise to not rent restricted movies or video games to minors without parental consent. Information kits and posters explaining the ratings of both movies and video games are being mailed to member stores.

Each kit contains a flier describing the program, a pledge form for parents to approve or disapprove the rental of restricted products to their children, a promotional “terminal topper” and ID check sign and a sample press release to publicize their efforts within their local communities.

“I think everyone in home video is concerned about the natural implications of the tragedies in Colorado and elsewhere, and the content of movies and video games,” Andersen said.

“Home video already has the most intimate, the most parentally involved, program of any delivery system--a system in which parents can best control what’s available to their family and choose what they watch,” he said.

“What we as an association want to do is remind parents of their involvement and their ability to control exactly what their children can rent or buy.”

Under the VSDA’s Pledge to Parents program, “We are treating unrated product as having the highest age restriction, and we are encouraging retailers to look at it that way until they have had an opportunity to make a judgment in the absence of a rating,” Andersen said.

Edwards applauds the VSDA move. Already, he and his staffers are not only screening the unrated product before it goes out on the shelf, but also putting stickers on a questionable product prohibiting anyone under the age of 17 from renting it without parental permission. It’s an arduous process, screening every unrated movie that comes in, but it’s essential to proper policing, Edwards said.

Even when parental permission is given, Edwards said, he frequently issues a verbal reminder if a minor wants to rent a movie or game he considers inappropriate.

“I had one lady come in with her son, who wanted to rent ‘Natural Born Killers,’ ” Edwards said. “I told her right there in the checkout lane what the movie was about and that there was a lot of violence in it.

“She had no idea. She turned to her son and said, ‘You’re not renting no such as that’--that’s a Southern term--and they walked out without the movie,” he said.

“I may have lost a rental, but I figure it was worth it.”

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Thomas K. Arnold is the editor in chief of Video Store magazine, a weekly trade publication serving the home video industry.