Motion Picture Association of America film rating system

Kids and teens need to see Bully.

A powerful new anti-bullying film has the potential to change lives, but by giving it an “R” rating, the MPAA will prevent most kids and teens from seeing it.

Tell the MPAA: Amend your ruling and give Bully a PG-13 rating.

trailer is below …

http://youtu.be/1permkYrPnE

For a bullied kid, school can be torment.

Daily taunts and physical abuse turn into feelings of hopelessness when teachers won’t help.

School bullying has already made too many young lives painful and frightening. It’s going to take a huge effort to put a stop to it – from schools, parents, politicians, and cultural icons.

That’s why I am extremely disappointed that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has decided to give a new documentary about bullying an “R” rating, making it nearly impossible for most schools to screen the film or for kids and teens to see it on their own.

Our partners and allies have already delivered over 200,000 signatures asking the MPAA to amend their decision – and now it’s up to us to keep the pressure on by flooding their inboxes.

Help us keep the momentum up with another 100,000 letters TODAY. Tell the MPAA: Amend your ruling and give Bully a PG-13 rating so that we can start putting an end to bullying. WWW.HRC.ORG

Ratings are there to help parents and families make the best decisions about what their children should see, but in this case, the “R” rating does the opposite – keeping a huge part of the target audience away from the film.

What’s more, Bully was only given an “R” rating due to profanity, and the MPAA has made exceptions for swearing in the past.

In fact, the MPAA gave a 2005 documentary about the military a PG-13 rating even though it had 36 more instances of the f-word than Bully simply because they thought it was important for young people to see the film.

We agree: bullying is far more harmful to kids than a little coarse language, and over 200,000 of our friends and allies have already spoken out asking the MPAA to change the ruling. Will you send a letter now to keep the pressure on?

Tell the MPAA: Kids need to see this film. Reverse the decision to give Bully an “R” rating. WWW.HRC.ORG

This documentary has the potential to change – or even save – lives. But we’ll never know its full impact if kids and teens are kept away.

With your help, we can make sure the MPAA does the right thing here. Thanks for standing up for our kids.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
President

Katy Butler knows how it feels to be bullied. When she was 12, four boys came up behind her. They called her names and shoved her into a wall — then they slammed a locker on her hand and broke her finger. “I held back tears while I watched them run away laughing,” she says. “I didn’t know what to do so I stood there, alone and afraid.”

So Katy, now in high school, was thrilled when she heard about a new documentary, Bully, that sheds light on America’s bullying epidemic. The film’s distributor, The Weinstein Company, even had plans to screen the film in middle and high schools across America.

http://youtu.be/rjjeHeAzZZM

But it was just announced that the Motion Picture Association of America has decided to give Bully an “R” rating, meaning no one under the age of 17 can see the movie — and it can’t be screened in middle and high schools.

Katy thinks it’s ridiculous that the MPAA would prevent teens from seeing a movie that was made specifically to help them fight back against bullying.

So Katy started a petition on Change.org asking the MPAA to give Bully a PG-13 rating. Click here to sign Katy’s petition — and watch a two-minute preview of this compelling film.

The Weinstein Company appealed the MPAA’s initial decision to give Bully an R rating (unsurprisingly, language used in the film — especially by bullies — is coarse). But news broke on Friday that they lost the appeal. According to news sources, a two-thirds vote was needed to change the rating to PG-13 — but Bully came up one vote shy. Katy thinks it’s time for the MPAA to make an understandable exception for a film that could impact the lives of countless American teens.

Katy knows about the power of online petitions. Last year, when the Michigan legislature was considering a problematic bill to address bullying, Katy and another Michigan teen started a petition asking the legislators to improve the bill — and it worked.

Now Katy needs your help again. Click here to sign Katy’s petition asking the MPAA to give Bully a PG-13 rating so the kids who most need to see it — bullying victims and bullies themselves — can do so.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Mark Anthony and the Change.org team