America's Federal Trade Commission has given its fourth annual report to the US Congress on the marketing practices of entertainment companies - and in particular on the promotion of violent or explicit content to children and teenagers.
For the first time the Commission praised certain parts of the entertainment industry for its attempts to protect children from explicit content. In particular, it noted cinema chains had cut the number of R-rated tickets sold to minors and that record labels had stopped the practice of regularly advertising parental-advisory stickered albums in magazines read by teens.
However it stressed much was still to be done in this area. It said entertainment companies continued to "advertise violent and explicit movies, games and music in media widely watched by teens" and that stricter labelling practices were needed. It also said that the new legitimate download services were not doing enough to provide parental controls that stop children from downloading music with explicit content.