Are Red Band trailers reaching those that shouldn't see them?

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As the recent success of the Kick-Ass preview shows, Red Band Trailers (R/NC-17/unrated) are extremely popular online. Some people are complaining that images of little children cursing and killing people are too much for their own kids to see, but should studios stop distributing the extreme content, and are they doing enough to make it out of kids reach?

Red Band trailers are previews that are not rated by the MPAA and generally contain content not appropriate for all audiences. These trailers that are passed around websites with ease are all the rage online. Currently, you have to enter your birth date to be able to view the trailer. Is that enough to ensure that the audience under 18 is not able to see the material considered not suitable for them?

In my opinion, it requires anyone to either put in their correct date, and see it, or lie about their birth date. If the children are lying about their date, then the parents need to be aware their child is lying, and redband trailers are the least of their worries. However, I don’t know what parents are wanting studios to do, if the trailer goes online, which is a great way to get the attention of the internet community, there doesn’t seem to be much more they can do to ensure the trailer is not viewed by the improper audience, without ensuring the trailer is not embedded on other sites, which would hurt traffic, and defeat the purpose.

I am not a parent, so I admit I am not able to see the whole picture, but like so many other issues, it seems to me parents need to take responsibility for their children, and pass that same responsibility on to their children. If the parents deem content of a violent or sexual content not appropriate, then the child needs to be responsible enough not to see it. If, as a parent, they don’t think the child is able to do that, then that is something a parent needs to be taking care of. Either make sure the Internet is supervised, or locked to ensure they are not able to see such content.

When parents blame the studio for putting out content, they need to realize 10 and 12 year-olds are not their targeted demographic — it is usually the 18-25 year old males that they are aiming to reach — and as a result should not be held responsible for people outside the demographic that get hold of the video.

It is the Internet, and the United States loves the idea of having free reign of the information, ideas and people on the Internet. As such, you can’t have it both ways: either censor the information, and stop claiming we give free reign to the world wide web, or tell the parents to do their job and take charge of their own children.