The movie industry became a big hit in America after 1910. These movies were silent movies so therefore; we didnt have the problem with vulgar language. The first spoken movie was in 1927, called The Jazz Singer. At that time, the movie industry was so worried about keeping his or her audience happy and didnt want to offend anyone. That we didnt have the problems that we have today. In 1922, William H. Hays founded the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. This organization, which later became the Motion Picture Association of America, established a code to make sure that all movies produced in America followed certain moral standards. Foul language, nudity, the use of words that had sexual overtones to them, and the depiction of various forms of sexuality and violence were all banned from films. These rules called Hays Code were followed by the movie industry for thirty years. By the 1960s times had changed and audiences were more willing to view the kinds of things that had been banned by the Hays Code. Therefore, in 1966, the Hays Code was dropped. In 1968, the Motion picture Code and Rating Program replaced it. With this program, moviemakers voluntarily gave their movies one of four general ratings: "G" for general audience, all ages admitted; "PG" for parental guidance suggested; "R" for restricted audience, with no one under 17 admitted unless accompanied by an adult; and "X" for no one under 17 admitted at all. Television came about in the 1950s. Unlike the movies, the government regulates television because it is transmitted over the airwaves, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission. The reason for this is because there are only a limited number of frequencies that can be used for broadcasting and the Federal Communications Commission controls the rights to use them by issuing licenses to television stations. Under this law, these licenses must be renewed every three yea...
