Community Values: Lara Croft

For us, this blog is all about stimulating discussion of community values around television programming content. We note that some readers may find certain things more offensive than others, and we hope to be able to find a happy medium on topics that television stations can then use to inform their programming.

This week we had a couple of people mention the movie “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” that was shown on 73 (Mate) on Sunday 26^th October 2014 at 7pm.

There was some controversy as it contains many gory scenes and sexual innuendo for a PG move in a PG timeslot. The effect of these scenes is accentuated by an abundance of excessively tight costumes and suggestive camera close ups.

What did you think of this movie in a 7pm time slot? Would you/did you let your children watch?

As a side note for those interested: Most movies are listed on the International Movie Database (www.imdb.com) and we recommend parents concerned about the potential content of the movies look up the movie on this website. They usually have a section titled “Parent’s Guide” which lists all the scenes of the movie that may potentially be found to be offensive.

For example, for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider they list every moment with content relating to:

-       sex and nudity

-       violence and gore

-       profanity

-       alcohol/drugs/smoking

-       frightening/intense scenes

This can help parents to make informed decisions about what their children are exposed to, until changes are made at a regulatory and programming level.

If you’ve ever interacted with the Parent’s Guide on IMDB, we’d love to hear your experiences below!