http://ncac.

org/resource/a-brief-history-of-film-censorship
1896- movies arrive in the US and soon attract large and enthusiastic audiences.
1907- Chicago enacts the first movie censorship law in America. States and cities
in the US create local censorship boards, which creates a variety of different rules and
standards
1909- The National Board of Censorship, representing mainstream Protestantism
is created after complaints about indecent films, then causing movie theaters in NYC to
close. By 1920, most Protestant movie critics are requesting federal regulation of the
industry.
1914- The Womens Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which in 1906
condemned the influence of movies on the health, well-being, and morals for the
impressionable youth, begins to push for government regulation of films. The WCTU
claims that films are addictive and that they glorify war and violence, and from that cause
crime, delinquency and immoral behavior.
1915- Mutual FIlm Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, the supreme
court holds that movies are not protected by the First Amendment. Therefore, allowing
state and local boards to continue censoring films.
1918- The Sedition Act and Espionage Act are passed, making it illegal for
Americans to publicly criticize the US government, the American flag, U.S military, and
the Constitution.
1957- Supreme Court rules that sexually explicit content is protected by the First
Amendment unless it lacks redeeming social importance
1970-1980s- Newspapers and TV refuse advertisements for X-rated movies, and
some theaters refuse to screen X-rated movies.
http://www.lehigh.edu/~infirst/moviecensorship.html
Government censorship of movies is relatively rare in the United States today;
Movies are not often the source for heated debates the arise over the content of
public.
First, the Hays Code in the early 20th century, and today the through the Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings system.
The Hays code was created by the former Postmaster General WIll Hays, who is
1922 became the first head of the industry group that would become the MPAA. It was
created in response to the Supreme Court ruling in 1915
The content that was forbidden was a range of things from nudity to references to
homosexuality, and disrespect for the American flag.
This level of control was not enough for the Catholic Church which pressed Hays
to appoint a Catholic (Joseph I. Breen) to head the censorship office, now called the
Production Code Administration (PCA). The PCA reviewed movie scripts for
objectionable content, and its approval was required for a film to be shown in most
American movie theaters.
The Hays code allowed the movie business to grow, even as it limited the
creativity of movies as an art form.

 The Hays code continued until 1966, when MPAA instituted a ratings system to
what exists today
Attempts at censorship today do not come from government entities but from interest group that
use the threat of boycotts and protests to put pressure on Hollywood to change the
objectionable content.
Religion has outpaced sex and violence as a point of heated discussion
The Hays Code may be gone, but Hollywoods creativity remains unfree.
http://moviehistory.us/censoring-americans-movies.html
There is a belief that moves are business rather than art. Since the fact, it makes
sense there is all these regulations
Films have been subjected to an arbitrary age-classification system
The first censorship law was created in Pennsylvania in 1911
Ohio and Kansas followed in 1913, and then Maryland in 1916 and dozens of
cities in between.
They controlled scenes with indecent, immoral, inhuman, obscene, sacrilegious,
or would be likely to incite to crime
Only Ohios law was positive, calling for movies to be approved if they were of a
moral, educational, or amusing and harmless character
The fate of a film might depend upon which parter happened to be in power.
Local boards changed leniency often.
For film distributors if was usually easier and cheaper to edit the film to meet the
censor demands
1915 the legal scales tipped towards the censors when the US Supreme Court
considered the constitutionality of movie control for the first time.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/593210/
Film regulation became a national issue in 1930, when concern over what was
perceived to be increasing immorality in early American sound films led to the created of
the Motion Picture Production Code
http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html
MPPC- limits
General principles- lowering the moral standards of who see it, laws being
broken cannot be representing as a good thing, not correct standards of life unless it's
for entertainment purposes
Crimes against the law; should not be represented with sympathy for the crime
Sex
Nudity
Sexual Dancing
Ridiculing a religion

http://www.mpaa.org/